London, England: A self-portrait of Lucian Freud nursing a black eye after a fight with a taxi driver sold for more than 2.8 million pounds ($6.2 million) at a London auction.
   
Self-Portrait With A Black Eye, an oil on canvas from around 1978, was described by Sotheby’s as “the artist’s most important self-depiction ever to appear at auction”.
   
Aged almost 60 when he did the work, Freud is shown with a swollen left eye after being struck in the face by a taxi driver during a row.
   
Rather than seeking medical treatment following the brawl, the artist is said to have retreated to his studio and used his crumpled features as inspiration for the painting.
   
The portrait, which had not been displayed before in public, was the star lot in a group of works by Freud that have been in a private European collection.
   
The artist, now 87, previously discussed his habit of getting into scrapes, saying: “I used to have a lot of fights.
   
“It wasn’t because I liked fighting, it was really just that people said things to me to which I felt the only reply was to hit them.”
   
The painting sold for 2,841,250 pounds Wednesday, which was however less than the expected price of three to four million pounds.
   
The grandson of psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud was born in Germany and moved to Britain with his family when he was young.