. It involves a bookie, a famous artist, a few paintings, some gambling debts, and a ton of money.
'Lucian, who was a fanatical gambler, then pricked up his ears when he realised this man was a bookmaker from Ballymena and started betting with McLean.'
A friend added: 'Freud ran up massive debts, but apparently found Alfie McLean an irresistibly huge and ugly man.
'Freud painted people as he saw them, and that was not necessarily in a flattering light.
'Lucian introduced him to Francis Bacon, who was also a gambler.'
