When Sue Tilley met Lucian Freud, it changed her life. Now a painting of her could fetch $47 million

LONDON (AP) — Sue Tilley was working in an unemployment office when she met the artist Lucian Freud. The paintings he made of her in the 1990s are now among the most famous in modern art — and the most valuable.

“Sleeping by the Lion Carpet,” regarded as one of Freud’s masterpieces, is going up for sale at Sotheby’s on June 24, with a presale estimate of 25 million pounds to 35 million pounds ($33 million to $47 million).

Tilley hasn’t seen any of the millions that the portraits have fetched at auction. But she doesn’t regret a thing.

“It did change my life,” Tilley told The Associated Press as she sat in front of the 7 ½-foot (2.3-meter)-high nude image of herself in the auction house showroom. “Who would have thought I’d be in Sotheby’s?”

“Sleeping by the Lion Carpet,” painted in 1996, is the last of Freud’s four monumental portraits of Tilley reclining, resting or dozing. An earlier painting, “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,” sold at auction in 2008 for $33.6 million, at the time a record for a living artist.

“I was thrilled I was in ‘The Guinness Book of Records,’” said 69-year-old Tilley, who has a rich laugh and an air of delight at the twists her life has taken. “Unfortunately, it didn’t say my name. There was a picture and it said ‘Benefits Supervisor.’ But I was still thrilled that it was there.”

Freud, a grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is famed for fleshy nudes of friends, family and the artist himself. He slathered oil paint to capture his subjects’ mottled skin tones in portraits that are both unsparing and warm. He even painted Queen Elizabeth II — fully clothed. By the time of his death aged 88 in 2011, he was the most acclaimed British portrait painter of the 20th century.

His reputation has only grown since. Another picture of Tilley, “Benefits Supervisor Resting,” was auctioned in 2015 for $56.2 million. In 2022, his painting “Large Interior, W11” sold for $86 million.

Tilley met Freud through her friend Leigh Bowery, the late Australian performance artist, who also posed for the painter. She recalls “trudging up the stairs” to Freud’s London studio for sittings that involved plentiful tea and chitchat, punctuated by a good lunch. Each portrait was the product of months of work.

“Sleeping by the Lion Carpet,” Tilley says, “was the most comfortable one, because I was sitting up in a chair. Lying down on the sofa looks comfortable, but after a while it got a bit painful.”

Freud painted his friends, lovers, children and colleagues, and the results are bold and exposing. Tilley says that has never bothered her.

“I’m not really vain,” she said. “Sometimes I get out of bed in the morning, and I look at my legs and go, ‘Oh, they look just like that painting.’”

She loved the messy energy of Freud’s studio, where “he used to make you a drink and whisk it up with a dirty old paintbrush, and there was paint absolutely everywhere. I’d go home and there’d be bits of paint all over me.”

Tilley was part of a 1980s and '90s London creative scene, alongside figures like Bowery, who ran the avant-garde Taboo nightclub and died in 1994 aged 33. She says she enjoyed Freud’s tales of an earlier Bohemian era.

“I used to love hearing about when he was roaring around in a Rolls-Royce open top with Cecil Beaton and Marlene Dietrich and goodness knows (who), and when he met Judy Garland,” she said. “I used to love getting the stories of his youth and his misbehavior.”

Tilley is unperturbed that her image is ending up in the hands of the ultra-wealthy. “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” was bought in 2008 by Roman Abramovich, the then-owner of Chelsea Football Club, who was sanctioned by the U.K. after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Sleeping by the Lion Carpet” is part of a June 24-25 sale from the collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis, the former majority owner of Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, which is still owned by his family. Also going under the hammer are works by Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and others, collectively valued at more than 150 million pounds ($201 million).

There's a chance “Sleeping by the Lion Carpet” could set a new record. Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, describes it as Freud’s “magnum opus.”

“This is a painting that during his lifetime was very much described by Lucian as being the apogee of everything that he was trying to achieve as a painter,” Barker said. “The market knows, and it’s very savvy, it wants to go for the best of the best — and this is it.”

Tilley, who is retired and lives on England's south coast, says Freud “gave me a couple of etchings, and then I sold them, because I’d rather have the money, and I went on holiday.”

She says she doesn’t regret Freud not leaving her one of the paintings. Her place in art history is secure.

“When I was younger, I used to read art books the whole time and read all about the Pre-Raphaelites and the Impressionists, all the goings on, how they’re all friends and interconnected and all the models knew each other," she said.

“And now, I’ve only just realized, I’m part of that. And that’s thrilling for me that I’ve achieved my ambition without really knowing it.”

Sue Tilley, a model for British painter Lucian Freud, speaks in front of Freud's painting of her, titled "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" during an interview in Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Sue Tilley, a model for British painter Lucian Freud, poses in front of Freud's painting of her, titled "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" during an interview in Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Sue Tilley, a model for British painter Lucian Freud, poses in front of Freud's painting of her, titled "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" during an interview in Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Sue Tilley, a model for British painter Lucian Freud, poses in front of Freud's painting of her, titled "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" during an interview in Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Sue Tilley, a model for British painter Lucian Freud, poses in front of Freud's painting of her, titled "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" during an interview in Sotheby's auction house in London, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A Russian drone that was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine and then went astray slammed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people in the NATO member country, Romanian authorities said, adding to concerns that the war could spread across the alliance’s borders.

The Russian drone was tracked by radar in Romanian airspace and crashed onto the roof of the building in the city of Galati, Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The impact was followed by a fire. The two people suffered minor injuries, and several others were evacuated.

The Romanian military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter that were authorized to engage targets, and alert messages were sent to residents of the affected areas. But the aircraft didn’t engage or shoot at the drone to bring it down.

Romania asked NATO for a faster transfer of anti-drone capabilities to its military, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the drone's flight a serious violation of international law.

The incursion was the latest in a litany of drone incidents — from both Russia and Ukraine — to afflict NATO member states and leave the 32-member trans-Atlantic organization on edge, drawing strong condemnation from Romania's allies.

Gen. Gheorghe Maxim, a stand-in commander for the Romanian armed forces' joint staff, told a news conference on Friday that the strike in Galati wasn't “an attack from Russia against Romania,” but “Romanians should understand that Russia is a threat to the security of the countries in the area.”

Galati is on the Danube River, near the borders of Ukraine and Moldova.

Ukrainian forces shot down 217 drones overnight on Friday, according to the country’s air force. In total, Russia attacked with 232 drones and one ballistic missile. Strikes were recorded in 14 areas, the air force said.

While Romania has confirmed drone fragments on its territory on multiple occasions since the war started on Feb. 24, 2022, including in Galati in April this year, no one has previously been hurt in any of the drone incidents, in which many landed in remote areas.

In response to the latest incursion, Romanian President Nicusor Dan convened the NATO member’s top defense body for a meeting on Friday to discuss the implications of what he called “the worst incident to hit the national territory” since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and blamed Russia directly for the incident.

“We will have proportional measures in relation to the Russian Federation. ... There is no ambiguity about the author and the cause of this assault,” he wrote in a post on Facebook. He said that his thoughts are with the injured people, families and residents “who experienced terrible moments in their own homes.”

After the Supreme Council of National Defense meeting in Bucharest, Dan said that the Russian consul in the Black Sea port city of Constanta has been declared persona non grata and that the consulate there will be closed. Russia also has an embassy in Romania's capital, Bucharest.

In recent years, airspace violations have become so common in Romania that lawmakers adopted legislation last year allowing the army to shoot down drones entering its airspace as a last resort. But Romania has remained cautious in downing errant drones, which can pose risks to populated areas.

Russia has been using long-range ballistic missiles and drones to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities, and Ukraine has braced for further heavy bombardments.

The latest incident adds to recent drone-related problems posed to Europe. Over the past few months, Ukrainian drones have crashed into the chimney of a power plant in Estonia, hit empty fuel tanks in Latvia and been shot down by Romanian fighter jets stationed in Lithuania. Ukrainian officials apologized and said that the drones were aimed at military targets inside Russia, but were sent off course by Russian electronic interference.

Since the war started nearly 4½ year ago, Poland, Croatia, Romania and non-NATO member Moldova have reported airspace violations and have found drone fragments on their territory.

The string of airspace violations has prompted questions about the state of air defenses on NATO’s eastern flank.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that he had spoken to Romania’s president and expressed the organization’s “absolute solidarity” with its ally.

Rutte said in an X post that he “affirmed that NATO stands ready to defend every inch of Allied territory. We will continue to enhance our readiness to deter and defend against any threat, including from drones.”

NATO allies are talking informally about the incursion, but no official meeting about it was due to take place on Friday. Romania can request formal NATO consultations, if it feels that it’s territory or security is under threat.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also said the incident showed that Russia "has crossed yet another line.” She said the EU will keep strengthening security along its eastern border and was actively drafting another set of sanctions against Russia, the 21st so far.

“A Russian drone incursion struck a densely populated area in Romania, injuring civilians,” she wrote in a social media post. “On EU territory.”

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that the risk of such “serious incidents” was raised by “ Putin’s increasing nervousness, driven by military setbacks.”

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This story has been corrected to remove the reference to Galati being east of the Ukraine and Moldova borders, since the city is to the west of them.

Stephen McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

A serviceman of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence prepares an An-196 Liutyi (Fierce) one-way deep strike drone in an undisclosed location in Ukraine late Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Servicemen of Ukraine's defense intelligence set up the Peklo (Hell) missile drone against Russian in an undisclosed location in Ukraine late Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, May 27, 2026., Russian servicemen prepare to launch an interceptor drone for an action in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, not seen, give a joint news conference at the F16 air flotilla in Uppsala, Sweden, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)