Posted on 05/02/2012 5:44:44 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Let the art market roar. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch became the most expensive artist at auction Wednesday when his 1895 pastel of a terrified man clutching his cheeks along an Oslo fjord, "The Scream," sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby's—the most ever paid for a work of art at auction.
The purchase surpasses the $106.5 million spent two years ago for Pablo Picasso's 1932 portrait of his mistress, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," as well as Alberto Giacometti's earlier record of $104.3 million for his 1960 spindly bronze sculpture, "Walking Man I."
In a dogged contest at the auction house's New York saleroom, the bidding for Munch's "Scream" began at $40 million and shot up quickly, with five bidders from the U.S. and China competing for the sunset-colored portrait.
Charlie Moffett, a Sotheby's specialist who represents American buyers, fielded the anonymous winning bid by phone.
The record-setting Munch was considered a plum as much for its rarity as for its pop-culture ubiquity.
One of four versions of "The Scream" that Munch created, this version was the only one not in an Oslo museum and the first to ever come up at auction.
The image has also been reproduced on everything from ice-cream containers to the villain's mask in Wes Craven's "Scream" horror films.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Was Obozo presenting the screamer a Bill?
Hope the buyer was a drug dealer!
Junk for Junk!
How do fools get rich in the first place?
Emblematic of where the Utopian’s have brought us, that the image of a terrified screaming man is what is most valued.
Words simply fail
HA! That would be great in an office - beats all those stupid inspirational pictures - lol
I agree! Doesn't look like anything that couldn't be reproduced with a couple boxes of crayons and a lot of time on one's hands.
It’s a copy the oringal on carboard hangs in a museum in Norway
heh. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Otherwise there'd be no such thing as yard sales.
Garbage Grove ?
Get elected to high office and go to DC
What the article fails to say is that Obama bought it with our money borrowed from China and then used it to light a camp fire. It his his real life version of Brewster’s Millions.
Ok, that was a lie. I am sorry if I freaked any of you out.
It’s probably less about the increased value of the painting than the decreasing value of the dollar.
These kinds of sales where value is determined by auction, requires an explanation by a lawyer. >There are lawyers commenting on freerepublic.
High value items often end up in a Museum.
1. A ‘Charitable Remainder Trust’ is a method to transfer money to someone with a reduced tax liability. It’s part of estate planning.
2. Auctions transfer money & according to the article can increase other items (such as ‘art’ here) >not being sold at auction.
2. Rich people get richer by avoiding taxes whenever possible.
3. Whether or NOT this sale was done for the purposes of transferring money or setting up a Charitable Remainder Trust is NOT revealed by the article.
Obviously, I’m >not rich. As rich people do >not discuss money as the IRS is always trying to track them down.
Interesting observation. I wonder what the political leanings of the buyer is?
I could have sworn that a Jackson Pollock was the most expensive ever recorded, but the article seems to have a number of qualifiers spread out.
He drew one copy in crayola. A couple in tempura. This one's in chalk.
Heck some guy paid him a few kroner to make him a copy.
yitbos
My then third grader used water colors, the ones that come in the little crayola case, to try and copy this painting in art class. We thought it came out so good we framed it. Think I can get $120 million? ;)
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