ChristiesLet's play a game. To determine how cultured you are. Whether you fit in with high society. If you are old money or new money. Just answer this one question: How much does this painting cost?
This is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.
The three-panel piece, painted by artist Francis Bacon in 1969, is titled "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" and depicts Bacon's "friend and rival" (aka frenemy) Lucian Freud, a fellow painter and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. This week, it went on sale in Manhattan via Christie's postwar and contemporary sale.
Do you have a price tag picked out yet?
Here is a bit more info to help you out: Before this sale, Bacon's most expensive painting sold for $86 million in 2008 (1976's "Triptych"). This painting was estimated to sell for $85 million.
Do you have a number in mind yet?
An unknown buyer purchased the piece after "six minutes of fierce bidding." The previous Most Expensive Painting Ever Sold at Auction was Edvard Munch's "The Scream," which sold for $120 million in 2012.
One last clue. Write your guesstimate down, so we know you're not cheating.
Christie's fetched a record-breaking $691 million at the auction, the highest total for an art sale in history, according to CNN. The biggest sale, the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, sold for...
$142.4 million aka $142,400,000 aka one hundred and forty-two million dollars.
How close were you?