$330,568,550 marks the Highest-Ever Total for an Auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s Worldwide
Edvard Munch’s The Scream sets the highest price for any work of art at auction:
$119,922,500 / £73,921,284 / €91,033,826
Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, Tobias Meyer, leads the bidding.
A group of at least eight bidders jumped into the competition, carrying the bidding for more than 12 minutes.
History is made: Sotheby’s highest-ever total for a sale of Impressionist & Modern Art worldwide, and the second-highest total for a Sotheby’s auction in any category.
LOT 20
Edvard Munch
The Scream
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 119,922,500 USD
LOT 4
Pablo Picasso
Femme assise dans un fauteuil
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 29,202,500 USD
LOT 26
Salvador Dalí
Printemps nécrophilique
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 16,322,500 USD
LOT 11
Joan Miró
Tête humaine
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 14,866,500 USD
LOT 43
Constantin Brancusi
Prométhée
Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 12,682,500 USD
OVERVIEW
Auction history was made at Sotheby’s 2 May when Edvard Munch’s iconic masterpiece The Scream sold for $119,922,500 / £73,921,284 / €91,033,826 in New York, marking a new world record for any work of art at auction*. A group of at least eight bidders jumped into the competition, but it was a prolonged battle between two highly determined phone bidders that carried the final selling price to its historic level, after more than 12 minutes.
The Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale totaled a remarkable $330,568,550 / £203,765,332 / €250,936,357, Sotheby’s highest-ever total for a sale of Impressionist & Modern Art worldwide**, and the second-highest total for a Sotheby’s auction in any category***.
* The previous record for a work of art at auction was held by Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, which sold at Christie’s New York in May 2010 for
$106,482,500
** Sotheby’s previous record for a sale of Impressionist & Modern Art was $286,165,000, achieved in New York on 17 May 1990
*** Sotheby’s highest-ever auction total was achieved by the Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 14 May 2008, which totaled $362,037,000
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