$51 million for Bacon painting

A three-part painting by Francis Bacon was sold to an anonymous buyer for more than $51 million this week, Christie’s auction house said.

“Triptych 1974-77” was the last in a series of haunting works Bacon painted after the suicide of his lover, George Dyer, in 1971. Bacon, who died in 1992 at age 82, is considered one of Britain’s most important 20th century artists.