![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/81f02e957241ca97f839ce91516c73611d0bcb8a-720x586.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nFrancis Bacon, Self-Portrait (1972)Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, Sotheby\u2019s, London, 4 MarchEstimate: \u00a38m to \u00a312m<\/p>\n
Following the sudden death of his longtime partner and muse George Dyer in 1971, Francis Bacon painted his own image over and over, introspective in his grief. This particular self-portrait was given by Bacon in a brown paper bag to his doctor Paul Brass as a gift to thank him. In early 1972 Brass made a house call to Bacon\u2019s studio in order to stitch up a facial injury sustained during a fight with a lover. Brass later recalled: \u201cI said, \u2018You\u2019re going to have to see a plastic surgeon.\u2019 He said, \u2018Absolutely not\u2014you can stitch me up now.\u2019 So we lay him on the table in his studio. I offered him a local anaesthetic but he refused. He was so drunk I don\u2019t think he felt anything.\u201d Self-Portrait comes to auction from the collection of the billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust is the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 Magritte, Les gr\u00e2ces naturelles (around 1961) Courtesy of Christie\u2019s<\/p>\n
Ren\u00e9 Magritte, Les gr\u00e2ces naturelles (around 1961)The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, Christie\u2019s, London, 5 MarchEstimate: \u00a36.5m to \u00a39.5m<\/p>\n
This famed painting of one of Ren\u00e9 Magritte\u2019s \u201cleaf-birds\u201d will make its debut at auction after remaining in the same private collection for 25 years. Magritte first explored the motif in the early 1940s, when experts believe he may have been inspired by an aviary that could be seen from the window of his home in Brussels. A work based on an earlier version of the leaf-bird seen in Les gr\u00e2ces naturelles set an auction record for a sculpture by the artist in 2024 at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d9a9b8aa5f90d589b218c43d65b938f3505bb040-646x1236.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Osman Hamdi Bey, Cami Kapisinda (At the Mosque Door) (1891) Courtesy of Bonhams<\/p>\n
Osman Hamdi Bey, Cami Kapisinda (At the Mosque Door) (1891)19th-Century and British Impressionist Art, Bonhams, London, 25 MarchEstimate: \u00a32m to \u00a33m<\/p>\n
Painted in 1891, At the Mosque Door is a major work by the Turkish-born painter and influential cultural reformer Osman Hamdi Bey. Born into an elite family and educated in Paris, Osman Hamdi developed an academic style that he applied to subjects drawn from Ottoman life, offering a distinct perspective from the Western Orientalists. At the Mosque Door was conceived for the 1893 World\u2019s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and later acquired in 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania for 6,000 francs. The painting comes to auction from the collection of the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9a7e8d5c63ff112b98b1604ecf61d18881ed064d-847x864.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i, Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900) Courtesy of Phillips<\/p>\n
Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i, Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900)Evening Sale of Modern & Contemporary Art, Phillips, London, 5 MarchEstimate: \u00a31.5m to \u00a32m<\/p>\n
Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900) is a key example from the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i\u2019s celebrated Strandgade interiors, executed at the turn of the century in Copenhagen. Widely regarded as the core of Hammersh\u00f8i\u2019s practice, the series explores domestic space in which light, architecture and atmosphere take precedence. The painting is from the collection of John L. Loeb Jr., the US ambassador to Denmark from 1981 to 1983. During his tenure, Loeb began forming what became the largest private collection of Danish art outside Denmark, comprising more than 140 works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait (1972)Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, Sotheby\u2019s, London, 4 MarchEstimate: \u00a38m to \u00a312m Following the sudden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,67354,1120,96,9569,164653,164655,56,54,55,164654],"class_list":["post-456786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-auctions","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-francis-bacon","tag-object-lessons","tag-rene-magritte","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vilhelm-hammershoi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}