$142.4 Million for an Ugly Painting

Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” (1969) sold for $142.4 million at Christie's yesterday, making it the most valuable artwork ever sold at auction. But where would you hang this thing so that it wouldn't give you nightmares?

Maybe the buyer was a misanthrope who plans to hang it in his office, knowing that nobody will stay long in a room with this on the wall.

I mean, seriously, this is the world's most valuable painting? What does it say about us that the world's most valuable painting is an intentionally ugly, strangely distorted cartoon? This is art that does nothing but uglify, and if you ask me the world is ugly enough without artists making more.