The Tate gallery in London is to acquire a Francis Bacon archive of over 1,000 sketches and photographs four years after it rejected the offer.
The collection, said to be worth £20 million sterling, is owned by Mr Barry Joule, who was the Irish artist’s chauffeur and handyman.
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Francis Bacon
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Mr Joule is said to have struggled for years to prove the authenticity of a collection he says Bacon gave to him days before his death. The artist's estate has declined to authenticate the archive, threatening legal action when the Barbican Centre in London exhibited it last year.
Ten years after Mr Bacon's death, Sir Nicholas Serota, the Tate's director, says he will recommend to the trustees they acquire it.
The collection includes hoarded paint-splattered photographs, clippings, pages torn from magazines and books and scribbled sketches. Images range from cyclists and boxers to a portrait of Mick Jagger over which outlines of figures have been rehearsed.
The Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin is housing a reconstruction of Bacon's London studio. The studio was donated to the gallery by Bacon's heir Mr John Edwards and has over 7,000 items including 80 works on paper, more than 1,500 photographs. and books and some dramatically slashed canvases.
Mr Bacon was born in Lower Baggot Street on October 28th in 1909 and is considered by many the most famous "English artist" of the 20th century.