‘A class of his own’: Sale of rare Bacon works marks 30th anniversary of artist’s death

Monaco-based collector Majid Boustany is selling 20 lots of Bacon’s works, including a hand-knotted rug he produced while working as an interior designer. Photograph: Bruce Bernard

As a teenager, the artist, Francis Bacon, famously ran away to Paris to escape school and an authoritarian, homophobic father who had thrown him out of the family home.

Although his visit was brief, Bacon returned to the city two years later and became fascinated with the works of Picasso, Rodin, Degas and Monet.