But that explanation, given in the critic’s glowing New York Times review of the blockbuster Bacon show currently wowing the crowds at Tate Britain, isn’t the whole story. Back in June 2007 (which feels like several lifetimes ago), Michael Findlay of Acquavella Galleries offered another reason for the 20th-century master’s resonance with a 21st-century audience. In our feature on the then-incipient surge of interest in the work of Bacon and his School of London cohorts, such as Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach, Findlay told our writer, Paula Weideger, “They haven’t changed, but fashion has. People are excited to see the power of the loaded brush.”

Bacon’s handling of paint is indeed virtuosic. Factor in the seductive palette of moody earth tones intermingled with bright, brilliant hues; the provocative imagery of screaming popes, tortured self-portraits and shadowy Potterian Dementors; and the scale of many of the works—the nearly 7-by-15-foot Triptych, 1976, set a record for a contemporary artist at auction when it sold at Sotheby’s in May for $86 million— and you’ve got the makings of a “trophy” franchise.

Collectors have certainly been lining up. Those who have counted Bacons among their treasures—and whose patronage has enhanced the general perception of the artist’s value— include Steven Cohen, S. I. Newhouse, Patricia Cisneros, Roman Abramovich (the buyer of the aforementioned triptych), the Qatari royal family and Damien Hirst, who owns several works by his idol and bad-boy predecessor.

Hirst figures prominently in this issue—he’s the inescapable ingredient in so much contemporary-art coverage these days—but particularly in “Artists’ Most Wanted," our feature story on blue-chip artists collecting blue-chip art. The story focuses on current painters and sculptors, including Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami, who have made fortunes that could feed a nation of what we once quaintly called starving artists. With that money, they’ve started investing in the field they know best. “I’ve got five paintings by Bacon,” Hirst tells A+A editor at large Judd Tully. “I’ve always loved him.”

Among Hirst’s adored handful is A Study for a Figure at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1943–44, which we’ve strategically (and with some creative license) “hung” on our cover above one of the star lots of the Christie’s postwar and contemporary sale on November 12. Estimated at $40 million to $60 million, Study for Self-Portrait, 1964, last sold for $2.5 million, but that was in the 1990s, well before the current bout of Bacon mania. Some have wondered if the pricing at Christie’s is too ambitious, given the current economy. The rarity of the work alone—it is “unusual in its full-figure depiction of the subject and its relatively large size, 66 by 55 inches,” Tully writes in his auction preview, which begins on page 218—would suggest no.

In any event, think about this: As recently as February 2007, the £14 million ($27.5 million) paid at Christie’s London for Bacon’s pope painting Study for Portrait II, 1956, was considered an extraordinary price. But that sum was “only the beginning,” the London dealer Ivor Braka told us last June, citing Bacon’s status as a “giant in postwar painting.” Some giants may be cut down to size in the near future. Judging from the crowds at Tate Britain and the number of Bacon’s other well-heeled—and still deep-pocketed—admirers, though, my guess is, not this giant, and not this month.

"Letter from the Editor" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.