Jul 17
Sue Tilley was 35 years old and working in a London employment office when she disrobed and let British artist Lucian Freud paint her in the nude. On Wednesday, one of Freud’s four nude portraits of her sold at Sotheby’s London for $39 million, the third-highest auction price for the artist.
“Mona Lisa wasn’t alive when she became famous—but I am,” Tilley said of the interest in her 1995-96 portrait, “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet.”
(I don't have a subscription to WSJ but I'll link the whole article anyway.)
