BBC led thieves to my £8million Bacon painting, claims friend
Artist’s old neighbour says corporation misled him about filming the work, in echo of Diana deception
A FRIEND of Francis Bacon has blamed the BBC for inadvertently leading thieves to his multimillion-pound painting by the artist.
The deception surrounding Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales has prompted Barry Joule to claim he too was deceived by the corporation in agreeing to be interviewed for a documentary.
He accuses programme-makers of filming both the distinctive exterior of his 15th-century Normandy home and a painting by Bacon inside – even though he says he specifically asked them not to do so for security reasons.
He believes it is no coincidence that shortly after the documentary was aired he suffered a well-planned burglary in which that painting was stolen.
Mr Joule, who was Bacon’s friend from 1978 until the artist’s death in 1992, said: “The BBC have ruined my life.”
Having lived next door to Bacon in London, he now resides in France. In allowing the filmmakers to visit his Normandy farmhouse, he claims that he had told them that its exterior could not be filmed because its distinctive Normandy style and “very strange” chimney would make it easily identifiable.
He also says he insisted that they not film his Bacon painting, one of the artist’s Pope pictures from the early 1950s, only to discover that they did just that.
When the BBC agreed to show him the documentary before it was aired, he was horrified to see footage of both the house exterior and the Bacon painting.
He recalls his “strenuous objections” and claims senior BBC executives assuring him they would be deleted, only – he says – to discover that they did not keep their promise when the one-hour documentary, The Strange World of Barry Who?, was shown on BBC Four in 2002. A BBC spokesman stressed that “recollections differ”.
Recalling the screening at the BBC’s
‘The painful memories have come flooding back in reading about what happened to Diana and how the BBC treated her’
White City offices, Mr Joule said: “There’s about 15 or 20 executives there. I was horrified to see that they had filmed the Bacon Pope and identifying features on my house. I said, ‘you have to take [those out]’. They said, ‘yes, yes, we’ll do it’. They didn’t. They lied to me.
“Months later, there’s a highly professional robbery in my house and only the painting is stolen, cut out of its frame. Bacon had given me the painting after I saved his life, pumping his chest, giving him oxygen, on Jan 18 1992, after a minor heart attack.”
He added: “The police did a huge investigation. They think that the painting’s in Moscow with a gangster collector, because people have seen it.
“That’s what the BBC did to me, leading burglars to my French home – though I must admit I have no proof.” The robbery was so professional that the thieves had put a tap on Mr Joule’s telephone line and knew exactly when he would be out.
All the more painful is that the painting was not insured. It was worth about £8 million. He assumed it was safe as only close friends knew he owned it, and he had good security: “The insurance was extremely high, so I was going to sell it or put it in a safety deposit.”
He added: “The painful memories have come flooding back in reading about what happened to Diana and how the BBC treated her, and the paranoia that she suffered afterwards – exactly what happened to me.”
A BBC spokesman said: “When people raise concerns of this kind about programmes, we of course look into them. This is a programme made nearly two decades ago and it is clear that recollections differ. If Mr Joule has concerns about the film, we welcome the opportunity to speak to him directly.”
A BBC source denied there was sufficient information in the film to enable a viewer to work out where Mr Joule lived, describing the house exterior as “not a long lingering shot”. They added that Mr Joule had given the crew a tour of the house.
But Mr Joule argues that the house is a “distinctly” Normandy style and he was known to have a home there.
Of the burglars, he said: “They were a highly professional bunch of crooks. Searching for details, they would certainly find it. No question about it. If they’re focused on stealing a very expensive painting, they would pick up on any clues.”