THE latest round of Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York will forever be remembered as ‘The Scream’ series.
Never before had there been so much media focus on a single work
at auction as Sotheby's offered one of the
four versions of Edvard Munch's (1863-1944) seminal expressionist
image at their evening sale on May 2.
It took 12 minutes to sell as the bidding started at $40m and it
was pursued by four interested parties before it was finally
knocked down at $107m (£69m) to an anonymous phone buyer operating
through Sotheby's executive vice president Charles Moffett.
Although the auctioneers would not release any further
information as to who was bidding, it is thought that, as well as
the eventual buyer whose nationality is unknown, there was one
bidder from Norway and one from Asia who were still in contention
past the $70m mark.
The final price eclipsed the previous auction high of $95m
(£65.1m) which came for Picasso's
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust at Christie's New York in May 2010,
as well as the previous auction record for Munch, which was the
$34m (£20.8m) seen for his Vampire oil painting sold in the same
rooms in November 2008.
The result also means that Sotheby's now hold six of the top ten all-time
auction prices.
The work itself was a 2ft 7in x 23in (79 x 59cm) pastel on board
from 1895, the year Munch created a lithograph of the image which
helped spark the process of its mass proliferation. It was made two
years after the artist produced the primary version of The
Scream which is now in the National Gallery of Norway. The
version at Sotheby's was the most colourful of the four and,
crucially, the only one remaining in private hands.
Auctioneers Dream
It was consigned to auction by Petter Olsen, the heir of the
Norwegian shipping magnate Thomas Olsen who finally acquired full
title to the picture in 2001 after a legal wrangle with his
brother.
Petter Olsen will now use the money from the sale to establish a
new museum, art centre and hotel on his farm, Ramme Gaard at
Hvitsten, Norway which is planned to open next year in connection
with the 150th anniversary of Munch's birth.
On the rostrum for the evening sale was Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's
worldwide head of Contemporary art, who said afterwards: "This
evening's sale was a dream for an auctioneer, and to be able to
sell The Scream for over $100m was a moment that I cherish
as an auctioneer.
"Tonight was a historic night for Sotheby's, and I am very happy
to have been part of it."
Overall, Sotheby's hammer total for the 76-lot evening sale was
$291.2m (£187.9m), their second highest total for a sale in this
category. The pre-sale estimate was $246.3m-323.4m.
Christie's Imps & Mods evening sale the day
before offered only 31 lots, something which suggested that they
may have kept works back for a future series.
The hammer total was $102.7m (£66.3m) against a $90.5m-130.2m
presale estimate and the top lot was Paul Cézanne's (1839-1906)
watercolor study for The Card Players which took a
mid-estimate $17m (£11m) and was again knocked down to an anonymous
buyer.
The buyer's premium at both Sotheby's and Christie's was
25/20/12%
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