A portrait by Francis Bacon could fetch up to £6 million at auction, 38 years after selling for £31,500. Man in Blue VI is one of seven major paintings that Bacon produced in the spring of 1954 and has been held by the same owner since November 1971. It was painted while the artist was in the middle of a violent relationship with Peter Lacy, a former Spitfire pilot. Bacon left the cottage they shared and checked into a hotel, where he painted the Man in Blue series. It is thought that they were done from life, with the sitter being an unknown man whom Bacon had met at the hotel.

Man in Blue VI has been exhibited internationally and was included in the artist’s retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1962. It will be sold at the PostWar and Contemporary Art auction at Christie’s in London on February 11.

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