One of the art world's most recognizable images -- Edvard Munch's "The Scream" – sold for a record $119.9 million when auctioned at Sotheby's recently.
The 1895 painting of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky has become a modern symbol for human anxiety, popularized in movies and plastered on everything from mugs to Halloween masks to T-shirts.
It is one of four versions created by the Norwegian expressionist painter. Three are in Norwegian museums; the one at Sotheby's is the only one left in private hands. It is being sold by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of the artist.
The image has become part of pop culture, "used by everyone from Warhol to Hollywood to cartoons to teacups and t-shirts to whatever else," said Michael Frahm of the London-based art advisory service firm Frahm Ltd.
"Together with the Mona Lisa, it's the most famous and recognized image in art history," he added.
Proceeds from the sale will go for the establishment of a new museum, art centre and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where Olsen's father and Munch were neighbours.
The previous record for an artwork sold at auction was $106.5 million for Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," sold by Christie's in 2010.
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