Betting Odds Favor Less Than $100 Million For Munch’s “The Scream” At Sotheby’s
May 1st, 2012 | Author: John
Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” could soon become the most expensive painting ever bought at auction tomorrow.
The pastel and tempera masterwork is up for sale at Sotheby’s auction house and could go for as much as $150 million. The one for sale is actually part of a set of four and is the only one privately owned. Most think a reasonable expected price for the piece is around $80 million, but some experts are predicting it will go at least nine figures.
“I think it will go to $150 million,” London-based art expert Nicolai Frahm told Reuters in a phone interview.
“This is the first time we have ever had such an iconic work up for sale,” he added. “This painting is way more famous than the artist ever was.”
The current auction record is Pablo Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust”, which went for $106.5 million in 2010.
Other art experts are predicting around $125 million.
Sportsbooks are toeing the line, picking a number somewhere in the middle for an over/under for gamblers.
Bovada even has lines to take a guess at how much money it will take at auction.
Bovada doesn’t think it will go for that much, putting -150 odds that it will auction for less than $100 million. If it goes for more, it’s a +110 payout.
“$100 million feels like it might be a barrier,” David Norman, worldwide co-chairman of Impressionist and modern art, told Reuters. “But pictures like this — where they end up going is a matter of momentum. It really is hard to predict. You’re working at determining the price for one of the most unique and rare images of the past 150 years.”
Part of the high price prediction is the overall fame of the piece.
“Occasionally there is a piece like this that is so famed that individuals who don’t normally collect say ‘I want one of the greatest paintings in the world,'” 
said Norman.
Either way, it’s clearly a huge payday for the owner, and the auctionhouse.
According to Reuters, Sotheby’s is safeguarding the work with extreme measures, installing a 24-hour guard at its New York base, inside a specially contructed gallery with tension wire. Great measures only because two other versions of The Scream were stolen over the last two decades.