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Munch v. Cézanne: How High The Scream?

February 26, 2012 by Marion Maneker

The pre-auction build-up for Sotheby’s sale of The Scream has started very early. More than two months away and Georgina Adam reports in the Financial Times that there’s a betting line going in London with prices well into nine figures. With Cézanne’s Card Players offering a reference point well above the $80 million level, the question is whether the big hitters will feel constrained by the public format of the auction:

How much will Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” (1895) fetch when it is auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York in May? A British bookie is offering odds of 3/1 that it will break the $125m barrier, way over its $80m-plus estimate – the first time, to my knowledge, that the price of an artwork has been subject to public betting. But then “The Scream” is one of the best-known art images in the world. This picture has rarely been seen in public, however, because of the four versions Munch painted it is the last in private hands. (The other three are in Norwegian museums.) “I think that bidding will be totally international, it’s a trophy that any collector would love to have,” says Munch specialist and dealer Jens Faurschou.

The Art Market: Freudian Grip (Financial Times)

Munch Print Sells for £1.25m

July 13, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Bonhams pulls off another outlier coup with today’s sale of Munch print for £1.25m. Here’s Bonhams’ release:

An impression of Edvard Munch’s controversial work Madonna has sold for an amazing £1,252,000 at Bonhams – twice its lower estimate of £500,000.  This makes it the most expensive print ever sold in the UK and the second most expensive print in the world.  Another Munch image, Vampire II, sold in Oslo in 2007 at the height of the market for around £1,256,000.

Thought to be the first hand coloured version of this iconic image, the print shows the Madonna in yellow and white set against a halo of blue, green and red.  The central figure is surrounded by a border containing spermatozoa and a foetus in a vivid blood red.Continue Reading

Cover Lot Commentary: Edvard Munch

May 4, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Over the past decade, Edvard Munch’s market has been characterized by steady growth punctuated by explosive moments (Fig. 10). His average price for a painting has risen by 587% since 2000, going from $242,967 in 2000 to $1,668,519 in 2009. Since 2006, his auction record has been reset three times: Summer Day brought $10,975,088 in 2006; fast forward two years, and Girls on a Bridge, the painting that sold in 1996 for $7,702,500— Munch’s auction record for nearly a decade prior to the sale of Summer Day—appeared at auction again and sold for $30,841,000; just months later, Vampire brought Munch’s current auction high of $38,162,500. Next week’s sales may bear yet another reset as Fertility comes on the block at Christie’s. The work’s $25 million to $35 million estimate may seem overzealous at first, but the houses are usually on the mark with Munch’s paintings. Between 2007 and 2009, only one of the 19 Munch paintings offered failed to sell, and 17 sold either in range or above their estimates (Fig. 12). Works with similar provenance performed well against their estimates: Of the two recent auction offerings that, like Fertility, once belonged to Dr. Max Linde, one sold in range and the other (the aforementioned Summer Day) nearly doubled its estimate. In addition to a notable provenance, Fertility is distinguished by its exceptional size (2,605 square inches). Munch’s priciest paintings have not necessarily been his largest; Vampire measured 1,706 square inches and Girls on a Bridge was 1,608 square inches. But on the whole (with outliers excluded), size is definitely correlated with price in his market (Fig. 11). Last, but certainly not least, the work has a mammoth exhibition record. Exhibition history explains more than 36% of the variance in Munch’s prices, and his most expensive works are also his most widely exhibited. Until now, Vampire had the longest exhibition history of a Munch offered at auction since 2000, but Fertility bests its resume by 6 venues. Looks like Munch’s market is in for another harvest.

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