Last year saw not one but two record-breaking art sales — Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #96 ($US3.89 million) and Andreas Gursky’s Rhein II ($US4.3 million). Both paltry sums given the amount that Sotheby’s just sold Edvard Munch’s masterpiece for.
The Scream, which was painted between 1893 and 1910, just fetched $US119 million dollars at auction. Let that sink in for a second. One hundred and nineteen MILLION dollars. For a single painting. Granted, yes, it is a world-famous piece as famous as the Mona Lisa but that’s also the equivalent to 30 Holopacs, hell you could throw a house party with a who’s who of holographic dead rappers for that sort of money.
Interestingly, this isn’t the only Scream. Munch actually produced four copies of the iconic image, three of which currently reside in Norwegian museums. The fourth one is what sold today, and it’s the only one in private hands. [NY Times via Business Insider]