Munch’s “The Scream” becomes the most expensive artwork auctioned ever

The famous painting “The Scream” by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch has become the most expensive painting ever sold in an auction. The work was auctioned yesterday May 2, 2012 in New York at the auction house Sotheby’s for a total of $ 107 million, $ 119.9 million with commissions, beating the record of the work of Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” which was the best-auctiones artwork in 2010 by $ 106.5 million.

Munch’s painting is a pastel work, which was painted in 1895. This is the most colorful of the four versions of “The Scream” and the only one who was under private ownership. The painting is part of the great icons of the art history, and, according to the director of sales at Sotheby’s, Simon Shaw, the work is one of the few images that reach beyond the mere history of art, having a global reach that is only higher in the case of “Mona Lisa” of Da Vincci. Shaw adds that the work is a definition of modernity and is instantly recognizable. This expressionist work, symbolizing modern man pricked by a crisis of existential angst, is considered the most important work of Edvard Munch.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6w1fI-YlpE[/youtube]

The auction of the famous painting took place yesterday at 8 pm and lasted 12 minutes, being also sold afterwards other paintings by Munch, including “The Sower” or “Woman looking in the mirror” which were sold for 2, $ 8 million and $ 5.1 million, respectively.

Tobias Meyer, the man charged with auctioning the painting was excited, “Overcoming the hundred million dollars is the dream of any auctioneer.”

The work was bid by seven buyers, being the final purchase a battle between two individuals who participated in the auction by telephone, who were assisted by the auctioneers Charles Moffet, alias “Charlie” and Stephane Cosman.

Meyer says it was a good buy for the person who eventually took the picture, refusing to give any information about the identity of the buyer. In the auction room some names were muttered such as Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, by the fact that the entrepreneur is a regular at the auction rooms with a personal fortune of more than 13 billion dollars.

Whoever the buyer, he or she has received a great work in the world painting with a small addition that only this version of “The Scream” has;  in its light wood frame you can see written with red letters the poetry that inspired the painter to paint the picture. Munch wrote: “I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun set – suddenly the sky turned red blood, I stopped and leaned on a fence dead tired – blood and tongues of fire lurking on the dark blue fjord and the city – my friends went and I stood still, trembling with anxiety, I felt an infinite scream passing through nature ”

The final price of the painting was a surprise to the famous auction house which had previously predicted a price of $ 60 million for the iconic painting. The timing of the sale may not be better as the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch will soon be celebrated.

The person who sold “The Scream” was the Norwegian Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend of Edvard Munch. The painting had been owned by the family for over 70 years. The vendor has announced that he will use the money from the sale to build an art center and a hotel on his farm in Norway.