Starting tonight, a painting by Lucian Freud of the on line gambling magnate Victor Chandler will be available to buyers at a Christie’s International auction, along with four other Lucian Freud and three Francis Bacon paintings.
The portrait of the on line gambling tycoon, which is called “Man in a String Chair,” is expected to fetch a top bid of $7 million. The painting has sold for $7.7 million in the past.
A Christie’s spokesman said: “Man In A String Chair succeeds both as a frank and perceptive portrait and as a timeless representation of our modern age.”
Freud, who is a grandson of the father of modern psychology, is famous for subjecting his subjects to lengthy sittings.
On line gambling site mogul Chandler met Freud in 1979. The two discovered a mutual love of horse racing, and became fast friends.
Chandler is the owner of several on line gambling sites, and calls himself a “gentleman bookmaker.” Gambling has been the Chandler family business for several generations; Victor Chandler’s grandfather founded a betting company in 1946, and had 40 betting shops when he retired in 1975.
Chandler was one of the first on line gambling operators to move his business to Gibraltar in order to avoid British taxes.
Tags: gambling