Munch's The Scream set a new auction record

New York - The famous painting The Scream by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch was sold at auction in New York last night for $119.9 million (approximately 2.3 billion crowns). This sets a new auction record, dethroning The Scream from the top spot held by Pablo Picasso's Nude in a Sculpture Studio (Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur), which was auctioned in May 2010 at Christie's in New York for $106.5 million (2 billion crowns).
      Nude in a Sculpture Studio then replaced another painting by Picasso, Boy with a Pipe, which sold for $104.2 million (1.96 billion crowns) in 2004.
      The most expensive artwork ever sold is now Paul Cézanne's The Card Players, which was purchased by the family of the Qatari emir for over $250 million (approximately 4.7 billion crowns) from a private collector. The price that Qatar paid nearly doubled the value of the previous record holder, a canvas by Jackson Pollock that changed hands for $140 million (approximately 2.7 billion crowns) in 2006.

Overview of the ten most expensive paintings purchased at auctions:

	Author	Title of Work	Price (mil. USD)	Date of Sale	Auction House
1.	Edvard Munch	The Scream	119.9	5.2.12	Sotheby's, NY
2.	Pablo Picasso	Nude in a Sculpture Studio	106.5	5.4.10	Christie's, NY
3.	Pablo Picasso	Boy with a Pipe	104.2	5.5.04	Sotheby's, NY
4.	Pablo Picasso	Dora Maar with Cat	95.2	5.3.06	Sotheby's, NY
5.	Gustav Klimt	Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II	87.9	11.8.06	Christie's, NY
6.	Francis Bacon	Triptych, 1976	86.3	5.14.08	Sotheby's, NY
7.	Vincent Van Gogh	Portrait of Dr. Gachet	82.5	5.15.90	Christie's, NY
8.	Claude Monet	Water Lilies	80.4	6.24.08	Christie's, LON
9.	Auguste Renoir	Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette	78.1	5.17.90	Sotheby's, NY
10.	Rubens	The Massacre of the Innocents	76.7	7.10.02	Sotheby's, LON