Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s iconic pastel drawing, The Scream, made history on Wednesday evening as it was auctioned for $119.9 million by Sotheby’s in New York.
The pastel drawing on board, which is one in a series of four, made a new world record for any work of art at auction when it was sold for $119,922,500 (£73,921,284). The Scream broke the record held by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, which was sold by Christie’s in New York in May 2010 for $106,482,500.
The artist, who died in January 1944, had bequeathed 1,000 paintings, 15,400 prints, 4,500 drawings and water-colours, and 6 sculptures to the city of Oslo. The three other versions of The Scream are all held in Norwegian museums and is the only one to include a poem by Munch hand-painted on the frame.
The poem, which explains the inspiration behind the painting, says, “I was walking along the road with two Friends / the Sun was setting — The Sky turned a bloody red / And I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood / Still, deathly tired – over the blue-black / Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire / My Friends walked on — I remained behind / — shivering with Anxiety — I felt the great Scream in Nature — EM”
The painting was sold by the Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father Thomas was a friend, neighbour and patron of Munch. He is planning to build a new Munch museum, art centre and hotel in Norway.