Freud breaks auction record

The life-size portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping broke the world record at a Christies auction in New York last night.

Freud, born in 1922, has gained notoriety and praise for his paintings - most recently for his portrait of Kate Moss which was auctioned in February 2005.

This latest offering was estimated to fetch between $25 million and $35 million - not bad given the sitter was a rather less-notorious benefits supervisor from London called Sue Tilley. It came in at just $1.4m shy of the higher estimate.



Tilley was introduced to Freud by Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery who had himself sat for Freud in the early 1990s.

Bowery believed the two should meet, rightly predicting Tilley's figure would appeal to the celebrated figurative painter.

According to Christie's: "Freud had greatly welcomed the new possibilities that the bulk of Bowery's own imposing figure had offered him and it was this that had prompted Bowery to think of his friend, 'Big Sue'."

Tilley, now a Jobcentre manager, said: "I'm thrilled. I still can't believe such a bizarre thing has happened to me. It hasn't sunk in properly."

Although Freud painted the portrait in the 1990s, it's the first time the picture has been to auction.

The sale beats the previous world auction record for a work by a living artist set by Jeff Koons's Hanging Heart sold in 2007 for £11,335,033.

And it also beats the previous record for Freud: before last night's sale in New York, the auction record for a Freud painting was the £19.3 million dollars set in November 2007 for IB And Her Husband (1992).

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