Elaine Wynn's $142 million Francis Bacon triptych is installed in LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries
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“She’s supposed to be here instead of the paintings,” said Los Angeles County Museum of Art Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan of the late LACMA trustee and philanthropist Elaine Wynn, while watching the installation of a $142.4 million triptych by Francis Bacon.Wynn gifted the 1969 paintings to the museum upon her death.When Wynn acquired Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” in 2013, it broke the record for the most expensive artwork to ever sell at auction.
It’s also among the most valuable works in LACMA’s collection, alongside other iconic paintings, including Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 “Tarascon Stagecoach,” which was donated to the museum as part of the Pearlman Collection.Wynn became LACMA’s board co-chair in 2015, and the following year pledged $50 million toward the museum’s new Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries.
The north wing where the Bacon triptych has been installed is named after her.It wasn’t public knowledge at the time, Govan said, but part of Wynn’s interest in supporting LACMA was to find a home for the Bacon paintings, which she had pledged to donate to the public.
“So really, the story of this building and her gift, part of the energy for it was, where do you leave these legacies?” said Govan, looking at the paintings on the mottled gray concrete walls.The golden compositions are housed in bright gold frames, and the glass that shields them reflects the world beyond.
Both the frames and the glass were specified by the artist, Govan said.The triptych is along the wall in a main thoroughfare of the museum facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that form part of the building’s bridge over Wilshire Boulevard.
Visitors will be able to turn their heads from the Bacon paintings to see traffic rushing beneath the building and Chris Burden’s iconic “Urban Light” installation in the distance.Passeng...