The Arts

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Expect art lovers to Scream out bids

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 02/22/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

NEW YORK -- One of four versions of Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream will be sold this spring in New York, Sotheby's auction house announced Tuesday.

Sotheby's estimates that the work, which has become a modern icon of human anxiety, will sell for US$80 million or more.

The 1895 drawing of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky is being sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of Munch's. It is the only version of The Scream still in private hands.

"I have lived with this work all my life, and its power and energy have only increased with time," Olsen said. "Now, however, I feel the moment has come to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work, which is the only version of The Scream not in the collection of a Norwegian museum."

The work will lead Sotheby's Impressionist and modern sale on May 2. Olsen said proceeds will go toward the establishment of a new museum, art centre and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where Olsen's father and Munch were neighbours.

A price tag of $80 million would be among the highest-ever for an artwork. According to Sotheby's, a total of eight works have sold for $80 million or more at auction. The record is $106.5 million for Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, sold in 2010 by Christie's in New York.

The director of the National Museum in Oslo, Audun Eckhoff, told The Associated Press that Norwegian authorities approved the Munch sale a few months ago.

"Our consideration was that it is acceptable, since several versions of The Scream remain in Norway," he said. One version is owned by the National Museum and two others by the Munch Museum, also in Oslo.

Sotheby's said in a news release that this pastel-on-board version of The Scream is the most colorful and vibrant of the four and the only version whose frame was hand-painted by the artist to include his poem detailing the work's inspiration.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 22, 2012 C2

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