Tate spots fake Freud but can’t find the original

AN ALLEGED conman accused of trying to sell a fake Lucian Freud painting on ebay was caught when the Tate Modern realised that the real artwork had been missing for 30 years, a court has heard.

Vincent Dyer, 65, attempted to sell the portrait of Freud’s friend, the artist Francis Bacon, on the auction website for £2,000 in February, whilst allegedly purporting that it was an original.

Darren Watts, prosecuting, told Uxbridge magistrates’ court yesterday that the genuine painting is thought to be “worth several million”.

The fake artwork was spotted by Tate Modern, the court heard.

Dyer, of Greenford, west London, denied a charge of fraud by misrepresentation and elected to have a trial by jury at Isleworth Crown Court.

The genuine artwork, entitled Portrait of Francis Bacon, was completed in 1952 as a 7in by 5in oil painting on copper. It was stolen from the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1988 while on loan from the Tate and has not been seen or heard of since. The theft was considered unusual, with no ransom demand and no attempt to sell it.

Freud and Bacon used to draw portraits of one another with Bacon’s Three

Studies of Lucian Freud selling for £89million in 2013. Freud died in London in 2011 at the age of 88.