Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti were both important art collectors, owning a collection of around 160 works, ranging from modern to contemporary art. The Italian actress's passion for art started through Carlo Ponti and, over a 50-year period, she built up her art collection.

Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti were both important art collectors, owning a collection of around 160 works, ranging from modern to contemporary art

Loren and Ponti's collection included works by renowned artists such as Magritte, Braque, Dalí, Canaletto, Hepworth, Picasso and Bacon. However, their collection was best known for the ten works by Francis Bacon, which included triptychs, self-portraits, paintings of popes, and pieces from his early Van Gogh series, which were rarely unveiled or loaned to exhibitions.

Loren and Ponti's collection included works by renowned artists such as Magritte, Braque, Dalí, Canaletto, Hepworth, Picasso and Bacon

Their collection was best known for the ten works by Francis Bacon

In 1981, these Bacon paintings were confiscated by the Italian government and handed over to the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Carlo Ponti was accused of money smuggling and tax evasion and sentenced to four years in prison. The actress's husband never attended the hearing and was acquitted of all charges in 1990, regaining possession of the confiscated works of art, including the Bacon works.

Several Bacon paintings from the Loren collection are known to have been sold privately to New York collectors. However, in 2007, several Bacon paintings from Sophia Loren's collection were auctioned at Christie's London, including "Study for a Portrait II" (1956), last exhibited to the public in 1963, which eventually sold for €22 million. Sophia Loren's ownership of the Bacon painting was an incentive for buyers.

Several Bacon paintings from the Loren collection are known to have been sold privately to New York collectors