NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- An auction at Sotheby's in New York fetched a record $15 million for a work showing a woman who has just injected drugs painted by Irish artist Francis Bacon.
The BBC reported Wednesday that the 1968 painting "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe," was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder.
The BBC said that the painting was based partly on Bacon's friend, Henrietta Moraes, who is portrayed as a reclining nude with her arm pierced by a needle, although Bacon always stood by his story that it was only there for "visual" purposes and that there wasn't anything sinister about it.
The art of Francis Bacon, who died in 1992 at the age of 82, is known for its bold, often grotesque -- or even nightmarish -- imagery.
