A Lilac-Hued Bacon at Christie’s

Have a Francis Bacon to sell? London is where many auction house experts are advising collectors to try their luck. “We’ve seen extraordinary prices paid for Bacons in London in recent years,” said Brett Gorvy, international chairman of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department. “Americans have competed as aggressively as buyers from emerging markets.” And with so many rich Russians and Middle Easterners putting down roots in London, it’s the obvious place to sell.

That explains the image on the catalog cover for Christie’s Feb. 14 London sale of postwar and contemporary art. It’s a 1963 portrait of Henrietta Moraes, the model and friend of Bacon’s, reclining naked on a white bed in a room with a deeply saturated lilac wall and a bright red floor.

Bacon generally painted his subjects from photographs rather than from life, and for this picture he commissioned his friend John Deakin to shoot Ms. Morales in 1961. Christie’s estimates the painting will sell for about $23 million to $30 million.

The record price for a Bacon painting at auction is $86.3 million, achieved in May 2008 when Sotheby’s in New York sold a 1976 triptych, supposedly to Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch. Christie’s in London sold “Triptych 1974-77” that same year for a robust $51.6 million and a year later auctioned “Three Studies for a Self-Portrait” (1975) for $34.4 million. And in June Christie’s London sold “Study for a Portrait” (1953) for $28.7 million.

Mr. Gorvy isn’t saying who is selling “Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” but art experts familiar with Bacon’s work said it was Sheldon Solow, the New York real estate developer and a well-known collector who bought the painting from Ernst Beyeler, the Swiss dealer, in 1983.

Mr. Solow is not known as an auction seller but at 83 is re-evaluating his collection.

The Bacon portrait is not all Mr. Solow is said to be selling at Christie’s next month. Two other works from his collection are coming to auction on the evening of Feb. 7: a 1925 Miró painting, “Painting-Poem,” which is expected to fetch $9.2 million to $13.8 million; and “Reclining Figure: Festival,” a 1951 sculpture by Henry Moore, expected to bring about $5.3 million to $8.5 million.

It may seem as if the art world is in the winter doldrums, but organizers of New York City’s contemporary art fairs are gearing up for the onslaught of events in March and May.

Those putting together the 14th edition of the “Armory Show — Contemporary,” which runs from March 8 to 11 on Pier 94, are eager to make a better impression than they did last year. “Our aim is for comfort and hospitality,” said Paul Morris, the fair’s founding director. They hired the Brooklyn architects Bade Stageberg Cox to open up the space, giving it two aisles rather than three.

This year’s fair will feature 113 international exhibitors representing 31 countries, fewer participants than last year in an attempt to improve quality and give the dealers more space. Gallery Hyundai, which has not participated in the show since 2004, will be back with works by Ai Weiwei and Lee Ufan. Sprüth Magers from Berlin will be back, as will Greene Naftali from New York. There will also be a new section, Solo Projects, dedicated to single artist exhibitions.

Because the fair’s location — 55th Street and 12th Avenue in Clinton — isn’t the easiest to get to, the organizers have met with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and will use a text service to alert cabdrivers when they are needed. They will also offer free shuttle busses to neighborhoods in Manhattan.

Also in March is the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory, on 67th Street . Then come more fairs in May around the time of the big spring auctions.

Frieze, the London fair, will have its first iteration in New York, May 4 through 7, on Randalls Island. Those same days the New Art Dealers Alliance, otherwise known as NADA, has decided to test the New York City waters too.

“We’ve never done anything like this on our home turf,” said Heather Hubbs, director of NADA’s fair, which will occupy three floors of the former Dia Center for the Arts building at 548 West 22nd Street in Chelsea and include about 50 primarily younger dealers dedicated to new art.