Abramovich, who lives in London, was said to have bought Lucian Freud's painting Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for 17.2 million pounds (US$34.4 million) at Christie's in New York on May 13.

He also splashed out 43 million pounds the next day on Francis Bacon's Triptych, painted in 1976, at rival auction house Sotheby's in New York, the well-informed Art Newspaper said.

The work by Freud, a life-size painting of a naked London Jobcentre supervisor sleeping, broke the world auction record for a work by a living artist.

The sum paid for the Bacon was the most ever spent on a work by the Irish-born British artist.

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