Edvard Munch’s The Scream is the latest iconic artwork up for grabs on the art market.
The piece, which will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on 2 May, is expected to go for at least a whopping $80m (£50.4m).
Recently we’ve seen a range of auctions fetching more than expected from Elizabeth Taylor’s private collection to Lucian Freud’s sketches.
This got us thinking about the value of art and asking what is it that makes Munch’s The Scream so sought after. After careful consideration we’ve boiled it down to the following points:
- The Scream is such an iconic piece, arguably one of the most recognisable in the world, and its themes resonate with us all
- The auction comes at a significant time, just a year before the artist’s 150th birthday
- Although it is one of four versions, this is the only one that remains privately owned, with the others housed in Norwegian galleries
- In recent years other versions of The Scream have been subject to very high profile thefts, although thankfully they were all eventually recovered and returned safely
Still, with all this in mind there is no denying that $80m remains a lot of money. So, for the time being let’s leave the original for the art collectors. For the rest of us we’ve pulled together a selection of remakes of The Scream, from confectionary to ice sculptures, and wondered how much you would be willing to pay for each?