16/09/2025
Sophia Loren, beyond her legendary career on screen, was also a devoted art collector. Together with her husband, producer Carlo Ponti, she built an extraordinary collection that included works by Magritte, Braque, Dalí, Picasso — and at least ten paintings by Francis Bacon.
Six Bacons once hung in their Villa Ponti in Rome, among them self-portraits, popes, and pieces from his Van Gogh series. The collection became the subject of political drama in the 1980s, when the works were confiscated, only to be returned years later.
In 2007, several Bacon paintings from Loren’s collection resurfaced at Christie’s in London. Study for a Portrait II (1956), unseen since 1963, sold for €22 million — a testament to the enduring legacy of Loren and Ponti’s passion for art.
Via