Sotheby’s Unveils Munch’s $50m Girls on the Bridge for November Sale

Katya Kazakina got the announcement from Sotheby’s that it has secured an Edvard Munch painting from 1902, The Girls on the Bridge with a guarantee which was then supported with an irrevocable bid. The painting is valued at $50m:

The painting was first brought into the U.S. by industrialist and collector Norton Simon in the 1960s, Sotheby’s said. It has been included in museum exhibitions, including London’s Tate Modern and New York’s Guggenheim, according to Sotheby’s. It is consigned by an anonymous collector who purchased the work for $30.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2008. The company guaranteed the seller an undisclosed minimum price and found a third-party backer who agreed to place an irrevocable bid, ensuring the work sells.

Sotheby’s set five Munch auction records in the past 20 years, according to Simon Shaw, the company’s co-head of Impressionist and modern art worldwide. “Girls on the Bridge” sold for $7.7 million in 1996, then Munch’s record.