How Sigmund Freud’s grandson turned a tired civil servant into a $39M masterpiece

Talk about a Freudian slip! A painting by Sigmund Freud’s grandson, featuring a nude London civil servant, fetched a staggering $39 million at an auction on Wednesday—and its voluptuous subject couldn’t be happier. "The Mona Lisa wasn't alive when she became famous, but I am!" a thrilled Sue Tilly, 69, told The Wall Street Journal after Lucian Freud's masterpiece, Sleeping by the Lion Carpet, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London.

The portrait, painted between 1995 and 1996, captures a then-35-year-old Tilly sleeping in an armchair, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. It is one of four portraits the celebrated British artist painted of her.

Free Lunch and £20 a Day

Back then, Tilly worked as a benefits supervisor at a London job center and moonlighted as a hostess at a local nightclub. That was when the 70-year-old Lucian Freud asked her to join his inner circle of friends and lovers who posed for his artwork.

When asked why she agreed to strip down for the artist, Tilly kept it brutally honest: "He was very funny and he always bought us nice food."

Freud, who passed away in 2011, paid her just £20 a day (around $85 in today's money) to pose. He later bumped her pay to £35, begging her to keep coming back for more paintings, each of which took months to complete.

Art critics consider Sleeping by the Lion Carpet, which shows Tilly resting in a chair against the backdrop of an embroidered tiger, to be the crowning achievement of the series. In total, all the portraits of Sue have previously brought in a colossal $129 million at various auctions. "I’ve been doing the math and I think, collectively, I’m probably worth about £100 million," Tilly joked.