Today is the unlucky thirteenth anniversary of the theft, by a person or persons unknown, of Lucian Freud’s matchless portrait of his friend and fellow artist Francis Bacon. Until its recovery Freud will only allow the work to be reproduced in monochrome, as it is on this page. His friend and biographer, William Feaver, compares the embargo to a period of mourning. “Reproducing the painting in black and white emphasises the fact that all that can be seen of it, for now, is the ghost of a picture”.

The theft took place in more than slightly puzzling circumstances, as The Sunday Telegraph reported at the time:

“A well-known painting by Lucian Freud, Portrait of Francis Bacon, has been stolen from the National Gallery in West Berlin. Electronic security, now considered routine in protecting works of art, was not in use. The portrait, owned by the Tate Gallery, was part of a retrospective exhibition that was seen at the Hayward Gallery and is touring Europe. It is not known precisely when it was taken. One member of the public told police she noticed an empty space on the wall at midday on Friday, but it was three hours before the alarm was raised… Police are working on the assumption that the culprit was an art lover rather than a professional. A spokesman speculated that the thief acted on a ‘spontaneous’ impulse, adding – in an apparent contradiction – that it would have required ‘considerable skill’ to have removed the picture from its wire frame.”

A ransom of one million pounds was subsequently demanded for the safe return of the painting, but this was unpaid. It has never been seen since, except perhaps by those who stole it. Hope remains that it may one day be recovered. A poster campaign is...

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