Iconic painting 'The Scream' set to fetch $80m at New York auction

Edvard Munch's The Scream set to fetch $80m
at auction. 

ONE of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Scream", is to go on sale tomorrow in New York.

The piece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch will go under the hammer at Sotheby's auction house, and is expected to fetch at least $80 million.

Some experts think it could sell for even higher, making the painting among the most expensive works of art ever sold at auction.

At the moment, the two priciest pieces are Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, which went for $106.5 million in May 2010 and Alberto Giacometti's L'Homme qui marche I, which sold for $104.3 million in February 2010.

The head of Sotheby's New York Impressionist and Modern Art department, Simon Shaw, told Sky News, "I can't think of an occasion quite so historic as the presentation of Edvard Munch's The Scream."


"It's an image perhaps more recognisable than any other picture, which is part of our visual culture today," he added. "It's hard to think of another work which would be quite so transformative for a collector or a museum."

Sotheby's is remaining tight-lipped about potential bidders though, warning that if the painting does go to a private individual, the world may never know their identity.

Part of the reason for the excitement around The Scream, which dates from 1895, is that it is the last of four versions of the painting in private hands.

The other three are all in museums in Oslo, two of which have previously been taken by thieves and subsequently recovered, making it one of the world's most stolen paintings.

It is being sold by private collector Petter Olsen, whose father was friends with the artist.

Olsen said, "I have lived with this work all my life, and its power and energy have only increased with time. Now, however, I feel the moment has come to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work."

The Scream is often described as the defining image of the Expressionist movement.

David Norman, Sotheby's global head of Impressionist and Modern Art, said, "It has become, over the course of the 20th century, the most representative image of the anxiety, the despair, the enormity of confronting human existence."