Sotheby’s will offer four major works from the Lewis Collection next month, spearheaded by a 1972 self-portrait by Francis Bacon, in what the auction house described as a markedly stronger market than a year ago.
The group, which includes two portraits by Lucian Freud and a rare swimming pool scene by Leon Kossoff, will be unveiled in New York before headlining Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening sale in London on March 4. The house said the paintings are “one of the finest groups of School of London works ever brought to market.”
Joe Lewis is a British businessman, investor, and art collector, and known as the longtime majority owner of London’s Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. His art collection, which he has amassed with his daughter Vivienne, is reportedly worth $1 billion and has a focus on impressionist and School of London works. He formerly appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, owns the Charging Bull sculpture near Wall Street, and once held a 30 percent stake in Christie’s during the 1990s when it was still a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange. François Pinault, who currently owns Christie’s, bought those shares from Lewis in 1998 before taking the company private. Sotheby’s auction in March is the first designated sale from the Lewis Collection.
School of London was a term coined by the artist R.B. Kitaj to describe a group of London-based artists who were pursuing figurative painting in the face of avant-garde approaches in the 1970s. Bacon, Freud, and Kossoff were diciples, as well as Frank Auerbach, David Hockney, and Howard Hodgkin, and Michael Andrews.
“The mood going into the spring auctions is hugely different from this time last year,” Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s Europe chairman, told ARTnews. He pointed to higher interest rates and geopolitical instability that weighed on the market in early 2025: “The first six or seven months were very difficult to navigate. But something shifted in September.”
According to Barker, collectors are now seeking “fresh-to-market, high-quality, well-estimated material,” a description he believes fits the Lewis works precisely. “It hasn’t been easy finding good supply,” he added. “But when you bring exceptional material to market, the response is robust.”
Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening sale comes after what Barker described as an “extraordinary” fall season in New York, bolstered by Sotheby’s move to the Breuer building and the handling of major legacy collections. “We’re very much a mood stock—we catch the tone of the preceding season,” he said. “Right now, there’s real depth among bidders.”
Bacon’s Self-Portrait has a £12 million high estimate and was painted shortly after the death of the artist’s partner George Dyer. Barker called 1972 “an extraordinary year” for Bacon’s self-scrutiny. The painting was originally gifted to the artist’s doctor, Paul Brass, who had treated him after a violent altercation in Soho.
Two Freuds follow. They are Blond Girl on a Bed (1987)—high estimate £8 million—and A Young Painter (1957–58), high estimate £6 million. Barker described the latter as “the crucial breakthrough moment” when Freud’s tightly controlled early style gave way to a more tactile, expressive handling of paint.
Completing the quartet is Kossoff’s Children’s Swimming Pool (1969), which has a high estimate of £800,000. One of five major swimming pool paintings, three now in museum collections, Barker called it “plus-plus masterpiece quality” and “incredibly reasonable.” “It’s no coincidence they’re choosing to sell now,” he said of the Lewises. “They see strength in the market, and we agree.”
“The School of London has been a core focus of the Lewis Collection from its earliest days,” a spokesperson for the Lewis Collection said in a statement. “It is a movement that reshaped how artists confront the human condition; we care deeply about its legacy and enduring relevance and wish to support the avant-garde artists of today who continue that same fearless inquiry. By bringing some of our favourite works to market – and it will be difficult to part with them, we aim to showcase some of the movement’s best achievements and encourage the next generation of collectors to engage with this important chapter in British art.”
