The Hermitage in St Petersburg has cut a deal to exhibit some key Francis Bacon works late next year. The last time there was a Bacon show in Russia was 1989, London Evening Standard reported.

It’s payback of sorts for the loan the Hermitage made to Britain this summer, allowing crateloads of Old Masters to be returned to their old home at Walpole’s Norfolk residence, Houghton Hall, for the acclaimed Houghton Revisited show.

“His work will hang alongside Rembrandt and Velasquez, who were his influences,” says curator Thierry Morel, at a party at the Royal Academy last night thrown by Oracle Capital, sponsors of the Houghton exhibition.

Bacon has already proved popular on the private market with the Russians. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich bought his 1976 triptych for £54 million five years ago, at the time the highest price paid for a British artist. Some of the works heading to Russia will come from the Sainsbury collection.