I want to bring home the Bacon, donor tells gallery

THE Tate gallery is facing legal action to return a £20million donation of Francis Bacon art work made almost two decades ago.

Barry Joule made the donation in 2004, signing a contract believing that the 1,200 gifted sketches, photographs and documents would be exhibited within three years.

Nearly two decades later it has yet to happen and Mr Joule is to launch a legal battle to reclaim the works, which now belong to the Tate.

The collection from Bacon’s studio includes an oil study of the poet and painter William Blake. Mr Joule has since gone back on plans to gift further paintings to the gallery.

Bacon is widely seen as the greatest British painter since JMW Turner. His 1969 portrait Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for £89million in 2013.