Quick Takes: Francis Bacon painting sells for $37 million

Francis Bacon’s portrait of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud fetched $37 million at a London auction Thursday.

Auctioneer Sotheby’s said that the triptych, “Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud,” was bought a bidder who wished to remain anonymous.

The crimson-toned artwork captures a distorted vision of Freud, who like Bacon was one of postwar Britain’s leading artists.

—Associated Press

Singlehood in sight for Sheen

Charlie Sheen can go back to being single, but he’ll have to wait a few months before it’s official, a judge ruled Thursday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Hank Goldberg finalized Sheen’s divorce from Brooke Mueller Sheen, but the pair will not be legally single until May 2.

The actor and Brooke Sheen filed dueling divorce petitions in November, citing Christmas Day 2009 as the day of their breakup. Charlie Sheen was arrested in Aspen, Colo., that day on suspicion of domestic violence against his wife.

He later resolved the case and spent 30 days on probation.

Sheen, the star of the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” will keep his Hollywood Hills home and is required to pay $55,000 a month in child support, according to the agreement filed with the court.

—Associated Press

Costa Rica to get Brooklyn trove

The Brooklyn Museum is preparing to give about 5,000 pre-Columbian artifacts in its collection to Costa Rica as part of a housekeeping move to trim its vast holdings.

The museum will initially give the National Museum of Costa Rica 983 ceramic vessels and figurines that were legally acquired by American railroad magnate and banana exporter Minor C. Keith in the late 1800s. It eventually will transfer the other 4,000 objects from the Keith collection, curator Nancy Rosoff said Thursday.

The New York museum will retain about 10% of the collection, including some of the more valuable objects, such as gold and jade figurines and pendants, Rosoff said.

The Central American nation has never claimed ownership to the works, but the museum is in the process of surveying its entire collection of some 1 million objects. Many go back to its founding in 1897, when it acquired a huge inventory of material that may no longer fit its mission as an art museum, Rosoff said.

—Associated Press

Slain mom spurs Jennifer Hudson

In a tearful interview, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson said she’s still trying to make her mother proud, and that’s what has kept her going since her mother and two other family members were murdered.

Hudson, who has repeatedly declined to talk publicly about the killings, didn’t directly address the details of the October 2008 slayings in Chicago of her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. But in an interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that was broadcast Thursday, she discussed the source of the drive that quickly got her back on stage and in the recording studio just months afterward.

“I try to do everything to say, ‘OK, will my mother like this? Will she be pleased? Will she be proud of that? How do I know she’s happy and she’s smiling down at me from heaven?’” Hudson said. “And that’s what I try to go by and walk by.”

—Associated Press

The FCC fines KCET $10,000

KCET-TV has been fined $10,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for “willfully and repeatedly violating” rules that allow the public to view station records.

The government report said the files were found to be in order when its agent finally got to see them, but it took three visits to gain access. FCC rules say that the files “shall be available for public inspection at any time during regular business hours.”

Asked for comment, a KCET spokeswoman responded: “As stated in the FCC notice, KCET’s public inspection files are in order. KCET is looking into the alleged violation and will respond to the FCC notice by the March 10, 2011, deadline.”

The penalty comes as KCET is trying to build viewership with a new lineup of non-PBS programs.

— Scott Collins

Finally

Divorce: An L.A. judge signed off on the divorce of Kelsey and Camille Grammer Thursday, although financial issues remain to be settled.

On the move: The Blue Man Group, which currently makes its Las Vegas home at the Venetian, will move to the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino after September 2012.

Book award: Historian Eric Foner has received the $50,000 Lincoln Prize for his biography, “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.”