Photo Illustration by The Globe and Mail. Sources: iStock/Getty Images
The beneficiary: “Brent” is a 72-year-old, newly retired from his work as a consultant in Ontario. Divorced with kids, he’s long been remarried. Brent is one of four cousins on his mother’s side, whose family of sisters included Brent’s eccentric Aunt Val, who lived and hobnobbed across Europe and curated and collected art.
The inheritance: About 20 years ago, Aunt Val passed away well into her 80s without a partner or children to inherit anything from her eclectic estate, which included artworks she’d collected over five decades of working in the art world. “Whenever a new artist arrived at the gallery, she’d buy a piece of the new guy’s art just to get the ball rolling,” Brent says.
Hanging nonchalantly on the walls of her flat were original artworks from Henry Moore, Frank Auerbach and, the crème de la crème – at least according to Aunt Val – a 1969 self-portrait by Francis Bacon (the Irish-British painter, not the English philosopher who said “Knowledge is power”). On the back of Bacon’s painting was the artist’s signature and a dedication to Brent’s aunt, who he called “Valerie from the gallery.” These artworks were now to be split equally among the remaining sisters and four cousins.
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What he learned: First, Brent learned he was unknowingly sitting on an art collection with great historical and familial significance. “Turns out Auntie Val was madly in love with Francis Bacon, but it was an unrequited love, because he was very gay,” Brent says.
Over the years, she became Bacon’s manager, agent, bill-payer, house cleaner, and unofficial art security guard. “He’d paint and drink and paint and drink then look at his works and destroy them for being not good enough. Auntie Val would often run over to his studio to rescue them,” Brent says.
Though priceless in sentimental value, the financial value of the paintings made it seemingly impossible for any one cousin to keep one. “It was briefly, though not seriously, discussed, because we knew that if one of us wanted to keep a painting, then they’d have to come up with the money to buy out the others,” he said.
Either way, to determine their worth, and almost certainly sell, the portraits went to auction in London at Christie’s, where consignors agree on a confidential minimum sale price (“the reserve”), which guarantees the item won’t sell for any less.
But Brent did not have the problem of low-balling at all. After much fanfare and a nail-biting auction, Francis Bacon’s 12-by-14-inch Self-Portrait sold in 2006 for – get ready for this – US$8.99-million.
What he did with it: Pick that jaw up off the floor, because as usual, Brent’s actual inheritance wasn’t anywhere near that size: Christie’s took its 10 per cent commission off the top, and the rest was subject to the U.K. Inheritance Tax – 40 per cent on estates worth over £325,000 (about $600,000 Canadian dollars).
Canada technically doesn’t have an inheritance tax, so had Aunt Val lived and died in this country, the portrait wouldn’t have been subject to tax – until Brent went to sell it, at which point it would have been taxed as a capital property and Brent would have to hand over half his proceeds.
After fees and taxes and dividing the pot, Brent’s portion of Aunt Val’s full art collection turned out to be just north of $3-million. “I was disappointed at first,” he admits, “then I gave my head a good shake.” He acknowledges $3-million is a lot, “but it’s not a hugely life-changing amount. It’s not quit-your-job, travel-the-world kind of money, but it’s a great little retirement nest egg that took a whole lot of worry off my shoulders.
Brent returned from London to Canada to get back to business as usual. He had only told a few close friends about where he’d been and what happened while he was away. He invested his inheritance into RRSPs that he vowed not to touch until retirement, and luckily he didn’t have to. Two decades later, five years past the usual retirement age of 65, Brent finally retired to sit back back to enjoy his big Bacon bucks.
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