Lucien Freud died back in 2011 and according to his will, he instructed that certain items in his collection be donated in place of inheritance tax ... these included works by Corot (L'italienne which he bought in 2001 for $2.9M) and Degas (Horse Galloping on Right Foot; La Masseuse (The Masseuse); and Portrait of a Woman: Head Resting on One Hand). BBC News - 2013.
Well, I guess those weren't enough to settle the debt so now, according to a report this week in The Guardian, 47 sketchbooks with more than 800 drawings as well as the 162 drawings that Freud made as a boy before his family fled Nazi Germany in 1933 were donated to the National Portrait Gallery. The works are now on display through September 6. After seeing one of his childhood sketches (below), I realized I should have kept all of my early works! For more of Mark Brown's report, click HERE.
Lucian Freud, c.1930