Lucian Freud painting destroyed

In May, one of his paintings set a world record at auction for a living artist - Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, bought by Roman Abramovich for £17m. But not everyone values the work of Lucian Freud (pictured). The 85-year-old artist has just learned that Bernard Breslauer, the New York rare book dealer who died aged 86 in 2004, destroyed the artist’s portrait of him because of the unsightly depiction of his double chin.

Professor Catherine Lampert, who has been searching for works painted by Freud between 1940 and 1958 for a retrospective exhibition to be held in London next month, says: "He [Freud] was very disappointed and frustrated, as any artist would be. He doesn't mind his work going hand to hand and being sold. But like any artist, he wants his pictures to be kept and not destroyed."

She adds: "Lucian has a vivid mental picture of the Breslauer painting so, partly at his suggestion, I set about trying to find it. It is a mystery exactly when the picture was destroyed, but it hasn’t been seen for many years. Freud knew Bernard didn't like the picture at the time because he hadn't found it very flattering."

Aided by David Dawson, Freud's assistant, Lampert has managed to recover a number of other seminal works by the artist, among them a portrait of poet Sir Stephen Spender painted when Freud was only 17. Another 1954 painting is of Lord Glenconner, who wisely bought up Freuds before troubles over his Caribbean resort forced him to sell them off. The retrospective will be at the Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery in St James's.