28/12/2001

The Francis Bacon Estate have claimed that the artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was warned by the art gallery Marlborough Fine Art (London and Liechtenstein), the painter’s then representatives, not to move to Wildenstein gallery, London or face problems from UK tax authorities. The High Court in London ruled on the 20th of November that these blackmail allegations could be included in the Estate’s case coming up in February 2002, a year after the Francis Bacon Estate launched a civil suit against Marlborough Fine Art (London and Liechtenstein) for exerting “undue influence” in their dealings with the artist and taking unfair commission rates from sales of paintings. The disputed claim is estimated at $ 150 million (€ 160 million). The Marlborough Gallery has rejected all the allegations by the Estate and was reported in The Art Newspaper to “not know why Bacon changed his mind to move (to Wildenstein), but would invite the court to infer that it was in his best interests to continue to work with Marlborough.” (Andrew Moore)