exclusive : The Francis Bacon Mystery

As Francis Bacon's 1969 triptych of Lucien Freud sells for $142.4m (£89.6m) in New York- the greatest price ever received for a work of art- the mystery still remains of the missing Bacon paintings in Thailand.
The Shuttle revealed the tale in 2010 and it can be read here.

When Francis Bacon died in 1992 he left his estate valued at around £11m to his lover John Edwards whom Bacon met when he discovered Edwards burgling his London mews house. His paintings were bequeathed to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

Bacon with John Edwards

Edwards moved to the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya where he purchased a house and a lavish penthouse. Both were decorated with Bacon paintings that Edwards had held back from Bacon's estate and despite Edwards telling friends they were 'copies' ( and the Shuttle viewed 2 at Edwards' penthouse at a dinner party one night) an expert flown in by a local French decorator and Bacon enthusiast who wished to purchase one, concluded they were genuine.                
The French decorator however got cold feet and didn't purchase the painting.

As rumours of the fortune on Edward's walls spread throughout Thailand and local Pattaya- a town with it's fair share of dodgy characters, Edwards became nervous and instructed his then Thai lover to transport the 6 paintings to the Thai lover's family house in Northern Thailand.

Edwards died from cancer in 2006 and the trail ended there. The Thai lover was never located and the paintings had vanished into the ether.
Now the Shuttle hears though the Pattaya ex-pat grapevine that a US art collector and billionaire has financed another expedition to attempt to find the missing Bacons.
Somewhere in the Chaing Mai area, a simple Thai house exists and on the walls could be, at today's values, possibly one billion dollars of Francis Bacon masterpieces !.

The Colony Room, Bacon & Kit Lambert

By co-incidence, the Shuttle was a sometime drinking pal with Francis Bacon at the afternoon Soho drinking club The Colony. Once Bacon and the late rock manager Kit Lambert offered to assist the Shuttle in finding a cab after we became a bit the worse for wear. They made a valiant effort assisting us down the stairs but unable to find a taxi deposited the Shuttle in a nearby doorway, collecting our still prone body several hours later after repairing back to the club for a further drinking session.

Bringing Home The Bacons

Word comes that 2 professional treasure hunters have arrived in the Thai seaside resort of Pattaya intent on investigating the strange case-as exclusively revealed on the Social Shuttle, of the missing Francis Bacon collection of paintings. Apparently they have been making discreet enquiries around town.

The rumor has been the talk of Pattaya since Bacon's lover John Edwards died in 2003

The Shuttle was an occasional drinking pal with Bacon at the legendary Colony Club in London's Soho during the 1980s.  Bacon was a friendly and unpretentious man for an artist whose paintings brought the greatest ever price for a living artist. Although he lived in comfortable circumstances, they were relatively modest compared to the eventual fortune he was to leave his lover John Edwards when he died in 1992:  approximately 30 million dollars.

In his early years Bacon survived by stealing, dodging rent collectors , working as a domestic servant and as a shop assistant.

Born in Ireland with an English mother and an Australian army officer father, Bacon was a descendant of Sir Francis Bacon and it was only in later life he experienced success and indulged in his passions-drinking, lunching and gambling.

Francis Bacon self portrait

He was also fond of 'rough trade'. Several affairs with young men ended acrimoniously. One whom he  discovered breaking into his apartment one day become his live-in lover. Eventually he was to settle down with Edwards whom he doted on.

Bacon would sell a painting  and lavish money on Edward's East End family and bought them a huge house where he occasionally stayed for weeks on end . He treated Edward's to a Rolls Royce with the number plate BOY 1.

When Edwards inherited Bacon's fortune he moved to Thailand and purchased a magnificent seaside penthouse and a country mansion . In 2003 Edwards died in Bangkok.

According to Bacon's original will all his works of art where to be given to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and it's said, most where.  But visitors to Edwards Pattaya apartment said that they observed at least half a dozen Bacon works on the walls. When Edwards died one London newspaper speculated the paintings were copies which seemed a bizarre claim when Bacon gave Edwards anything he asked for.  One tale was that Bacon had actually given the 6 paintings to Edwards but told him not to declare them for tax reasons.

Edwards took on a series of young Thai men as lovers although he had an English lover as well. As Edwards became ill from AIDS it's said that he gave his last Thai lover who he had known for a little over 2 years, the 6 Francis Bacon works to store at the young man's family home  near the Chaing Mai area. When Edwards died the young man was away visiting his family and never returned.

Several people who tried to track down the Thai man have been unsuccessful and the tale of the missing Bacon paintings has become a local legend. It's believed that somewhere in the north of Thailand the 6 paintings may be displayed on the walls of a simple farm house without the occupants realizing the true value of them.

A local interior decorator who also has showrooms in London and owns 2 Bacon paintings is said to be the only one who had met Edward's Thai lover and attempted to trace him but then got cold feet because of the implications over the provenance of the paintings.

In 2008 the Russian oligarch Roman Abrovanich paid nearly $83M for Bacon's 1974 work Triptych.
The previous record for one of his works was $53M. This year Bacon's portrait of his friend and artist Lucien Freud sold for $35M.

Lucien Freud

That puts the estimate of the value of the 6 missing Bacon's (if they exist) at a possible $330M !.

exclusive-the mystery of the lost Francis Bacon treasure

Pattaya

 The Thai seaside resort of Pattaya, a 2 hour drive from Bangkok carries a reputation of unbridled cheap sex that is a magnet for tourists. It's a much maligned city by the foreign  tabloid media .

Rarely mentioned is that Pattaya also hosts a huge expatriate community from Europe and the Pacific rim, and the holiday homes of the rich upper classes of Thailand including the much loved Thai royal family who have their own wing in the grand Royal Cliff  Hotel.

Chonburi, the province that hosts Pattaya is one of the fastest growing areas of Thailand and now boasts some of the most beautiful modern architecture in Asia. There is a rapidly  growing vista of luxury hotels and condominiums eagerly snapped up by foreigners for probably a quarter of the price they would pay in their homeland. The area boasts dozens of fashionable restaurants and nightclubs. Amidst the sleaze and easy sex for sale is a glamorous lifestyle and  nightlife that rivals anywhere the planet. Tourists  can spend a month at a 5 star beach side hotel and play golf every day on some of the nicest courses in the world when it may be unaffordable back home.

Bacon & William Burroughs-photo by John Minihan

Into this fascinating scenario steps John Edwards in 1995, the lover of the famous Irish born painter Francis Bacon who during  his lifetime become a painter noted for paintings that sold for higher prices than any other living artist.   The last recorded sale of a Bacon painting was in 2008, Triptych, produced in 1976,which sold for almost $US83M.

 Born in Dublin in 1909 to an English mother and an Australian father who claimed to be a direct descendant of Sir Francis Bacon, the Elizabethan philosopher, Bacon became renowned for his half human-half grotesque portraits, often of friends. Margaret Thatcher once described him as "that man who paints those dreadful pictures". He was one of the characters that peopled the now vanished Bohemian atmosphere of London's Soho  and the legendary drinking clubs of the 1970's like the famous Colony Club or Muriel's as it was known.  Bacon's paintings are often violent works, with the subject distorted or in the process of moving. His subjects are committing violence, having sex, taking drugs, or suffering the effects of a life of excess. Bacon did not belong to any art movement. He developed his own style.

When Bacon died in Spain in 1992 he left his estate valued at almost $30M to his last lover Edwards. His artistic works were left to a variety of institutions including the Tate. Edwards got the fortune and they got the art. But did they get all the art ?

It's been long rumoured that Edwards, a handsome young East Ender when he met Bacon, may have squirreled away up to 8 Bacon originals which at today's prices could be valued at up to $600M. In the fairly close knit gay community of Pattaya stories abound of visitors attending parties at Edward's magnificent sea-side penthouse and country estate and seeing Bacon art works on the walls. A local British resident known to tSS and who was a  friend of Edwards confirms seeing different Bacon paintings at his penthouse during visits.

A French interior designer who has showrooms in Pattaya and Paris and has decorated homes for some of the world's top pop stars and Thai royal family members has 2 Bacon paintings bought whilst the artist was alive at more affordable prices. tSS  met the decorator in 2008 in his showroom packed with French antiques and he confirmed initial negotiations with Edwards to purchase one painting reached a point but he withdrew because although he believed the painting to be genuine, he got cold feet about the legal process. He wished to remain anonymous.

Edwards died in Pattaya in 2006 from cancer. He had purchased homes for each of his extended working class family in Britain and lived lavishly in Thailand. He took a number of Thai male lovers but he had one particular favourite lover for the last five years of his life who was devoted to Edwards. It is not known if Edwards ever sold any of the reputed Bacon paintings he still possessed. It's very unlikely he would have  needed the cash. The money Bacon left him was enough to last the 14 years he survived Bacon.

But the rumour persists in Pattaya and several people have set out to uncover the truth.

The tale goes that Edwards, towards the end of his life entrusted 4 Bacon originals to his Thai lover with instructions that he secure them as far away from Pattaya as possible which he did, in the village he came from in Northern Thailand. Those who have set out on the trail of the missing paintings include at least 2 adventurers, a London art dealer backed by a US syndicate who hired a party of local Thai investigators and members of the Russian mafia who have extensive links in every facet of criminal activity in Thailand.

$500M in wallpaper ?

All efforts appear to have drawn a blank. One of the main problems being that no-one, apart from Edwards knew the real name of his Thai lover. That lover vanished after Edwards death. 

Is there, somewhere in the remote regions of Thailand, a  Thai village where in a simple Thai house on stilts perhaps amongst the mangroves, a Thai family- grandparents, father, mother, children  chatting and gossiping the evening away as is their wont over dinner whilst without their knowledge on their walls sits a fortune valued at nearly 500 million dollars ?