The billionaire ex-wife of U.S. casino magnate Steve Wynn was the mystery buyer of the triptych by Francis Bacon that became the world's most expensive painting sold at auction last November, a newspaper reported.
Elaine Wynn—who divorced the Wynn Resorts Chairman in 2010—paid $142.4 million for "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" at Christie's in New York after a dramatic 10-minute sale, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two unnamed sources.
Representatives of Wynn and Christie's did not respond to requests for comment.
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The three-paneled work, painted in 1969 and which carried a pre-sale estimate of about $85 million, depicts the Dublin-born painter's friend and fellow artist on a chair.
Never before offered at auction, it eclipsed the $119.9 million that Edvard Munch's "The Scream" raised at Sotheby's in May 2012.
The 71-year-old buyer leant the painting to the Portland Art Museum but it could end up at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she is a board member, the Journal said. Wynn also has homes and ties to cultural institutions in Nevada and Idaho, it said.
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Another celebrated Bacon portrait, of his lover and muse George Dyer, could raise up to 30 million pounds ($49 million) at auction in London next month, Christie's said on Wednesday.
Wynn, a co-founder of the Wynn casino empire, has an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, according to Forbes.
She also owns a work by Lucian Freud, while her former husband's art collection includes works by Rembrandt and Degas, the newspaper said.
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—By Reuters