Lucian Freud’s Nude Portrait of Sue Tilley Sells for $39 Million

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A 1995–96 painting by Lucian Freud, grandson of psychologist Sigmund Freud, fetched $39 million at Sotheby’s London. Titled Sleeping by the Lion Carpet, the work depicts then-35-year-old Sue Tilley reclining nude against an elaborate lion-patterned carpet. Freud paid her a daily fee to model and completed four portraits of her over several months. Regarded as the standout piece of the series, the painting adds to the four-work group’s previous $129 million total. At 69, Tilley celebrated the sale and joked she now feels “worth about 100 million.”

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