'The Scream' to hit Manhattan auction block

'The Scream' to hit Manhattan auction block

By Adam Reiss, CNN

updated 6:54 PM EDT, Wed May 2, 2012

Munch's 'Scream' may go for $ 80 million

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is set to hit the auction block at 7 p.m. ET
• The iconic piece is expected to break new ground at the famed New York auction house
• It's believed it will fetch at least $ 80 million, the highest pre-sale amount ever listed at Sotheby's

New York (CNN) -- One might expect a few screams Wednesday evening at Sotheby's auction house in Manhattan.

Or a few gasps, at the least.

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is set to hit the auction block at 7 p.m. ET. The iconic piece is expected to break new ground at the famed New York auction house with its pre-sale estimate of at least $ 80 million, the highest pre-sale amount ever listed at Sotheby's.

The most expensive painting ever sold there was Pablo Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," which brought in $ 106.5 million two years ago.

The version of "The Scream" on the block Wednesday is one of four painted between 1893 and 1910, and is one of the best-known images in modern art.

It's also the only version a private collector can get their hands on at public auction. The other three are housed in the National Gallery of Oslo and the Munch museum in the Norwegian capital.

Munch's use of color, art historians say, is a distinguishing characteristic of this version. The piece also remains in its original frame.

Dubbed "the portrait of a soul" and "the face that launched 1,000 therapists," it depicts a man with his hands flat against the sides of his face, apparently screaming.

The painting is being sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father is thought to be a Munch friend and patron of the famed Norwegian artist.

"I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood," Munch wrote, describing how the idea for the painting came about. "I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."

Few pieces have crossed the $ 100 million benchmark at public auction, said Sotheby's spokesman David Norman.

"The Scream has really entered the collective conscience, whatever nationality, whatever country, whatever attitude or age, it really sort of speaks to that sort of existential terror that everyone experiences in the world," said Norman.

Meanwhile, speculation abounds in the art world as to who might pony up and buy it.

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