Plus-Size Model On Painting Sets Art World Record

A 1995 life-size painting entitled "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" where an overweight woman, a plus-size model for that matter, posed lying on the couch set a record for the most money paid for any work by a living artist.

The painting done by 85-years old British artist Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund Freud) has earned $33.6 million in a bidding at Christie's auction house in New York.

The overweight woman was Sue Tilley, a manager of a government-run job center in London. On the painting, she was lying on her side on a worn-out couch with nothing to hide her folds of flesh.

The painting is one of a kind because it challenges the modern notions of beauty. Moreover, because some people regard the nude painting of the plus-size model as shocking or ugly, it has elicited a reaction from everyone who sees it.

Critics believed that a more conventionally beautiful painting would not be able to fetch such a large amount. With the nude painting of the overweight model, "It's the sort of thing that everyone immediately wants to voice an opinion about... It challenges conventional taste ... and people do find that rather exciting and interesting to talk about."

Lucian Freud painted the portrait of Sue Tilley over nine months in 1995. She posed for eight hours a day, two or three days a week. As a model, the painter initially paid her £20 ($31) a day for posing, and the fee later went up to £33 ($51) a day.

Today, Tilley is 51 and still works full-time at the job center in London's West End. She calls her new-found fame "a bit bizarre."

She laughingly describes how she now has to arrange her schedule to accommodate media interviews.

Being the plus-size model of a record-breaking masterpiece, Sue Tilley said she was excited to find out how much the painting sold for, but knowing it could set a record was a bit scary. Says Sue Tilley, “It's hard to put your head around it, really. But it's all good."