Painter Lucian Freud’s life-size 1995 portrait of his muse, Sue Tilley, titled "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping," just broke the world auction record for the amount paid for the work of a living artist. Christies sold it yesterday for $33.6 million dollars, beating out the previous record-holder Jeff Koons, whose "Hanging Heart" nabbed $23.5 million last year. Sadly, I think we’ll have to wait quite some time for the work of a woman to break this kind of record, but I have to admit I’m pleased that of all of Freud’s work (including his portrait depicting celebrity-sitter Kate Moss) it was Tilley who turned out to be worth her weight in gold.
