Francis Bacon Painting Sells for $142 Million at Auction

Francis Bacon‘s artistic creation, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” is breaking records in the art world. The gorgeous three-panel painting recently sold for an astounding $142.4 million during a Christie’s auction of post-war and contemporary art.

Thanks to the sale of the Bacon’s painting—and 10 other pieces that set world records that night—the New York event achieved the highest auction total in art market history, totaling $691 million in sales.

“What we are experiencing now is a kind of melt-up in the market,” art adviser, Todd Levin, told Reuters. “It is a combination of tremendous surplus capital, and the need of this small band of ultra-high-net-worth individuals to invest all that surplus cash in assets that will appreciate. Art, for better or worse, is one of these places that they feel is a safe haven to put their money to work.”