Munch's 'Scream' painting fetches USD 120 million at auction, sets new record

One of four extant versions of Edvard Munch's painting 'The Scream' has sold for a record breaking USD 120 million at New York Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art auction. The final hammer price plus buyer's premium was USD 119,922,500.

The version sold is widely considered as the best of the four and the price beats previous records set by Picasso's paintings, such as his Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust that sold for USD 106.5 million a few years ago. A number of Picasso's were also sold at the auction yesterday evening, which featured artworks from Joan Miro, Pierre Bonnard, Max Ernst, Tamara de Lempicka, Matisse, Marc Chagall, Monet, Manet, Pissarro and Renoir among others, as well as sculptures by Rodin and Romanian Constantin Brancusi. Other works by Munch also went other the hammer, but for a more moderate price. Still, the majority of the works, by some of the world's best loved artists, had multi-million dollar price tags. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life. Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com