Bacon and Hirst art under hammer

The works are part of Christie’s Post War And Contemporary Art evening auction which takes place in London on Thursday.

Yorkshire-raised Hirst’s work, which represents the figure of the Disney character with a series of large circles, was being shown for the first time and is expected to go for more than £300,000, raising money for the charity Kid’s Company.

Bacon’s 6ft-tall canvas features his former lover and muse George Dyer, who died of an overdose in Paris two days before the painting was displayed at Bacon’s first major retrospective at the Grand Palais in 1971.

It could set a record price for a single canvas by the artist and is described as the most significant large-scale portrait of Dyer to be offered at auction in more than a decade.

Also included in the sale is a Jeff Koons sculpture depicting a cracked egg.