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1.Edvard Munch’s The Scream was bought
by an anonymous buyer at Sotheby's.
2. All four versions of The Scream are
owned privately.
3.Edvard Munch had many famous poems
one of which was hand-painted by Munch
on the frame of the 1895 version of the
painting.
4. The scenery Munch depicts is awesome.
5.Munch ended up in an asylum at an early
age.
6. Peter Olsen’s father was on good terms
with Munch.
7. The money obtained from the auction
will be sent to Somalia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17926519
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most expensive artwork sold after it fetched a record $119.9m (£74m )at
Sotheby’s Modern art auction 2 May 2012 to an unspecified buyer. Seven
bidders were competing for the work, which had a starting price of $40m.
The crowd broke into applause, following the sale on Wednesday. The
work is one of four in a series and was the only one still owned privately.
The other three versions of The Scream are all owned by Norwegian
museums, but Sotheby's say the version they sold is the most colourful.
It is also the only one to include a poem by Munch on the frame, which
talks of the inspiration behind the series of works.
It reads: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting
- suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and
leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blueblack fjord and the city. "My friends walked on, and I stood there
trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through
nature."
The works all show an agonized , lone figure on a bridge clasps its head in
its hands and cries out in despair against a swirling, blood-red sky. In 1978,
the Munch scholar Robert Rosenblum suggested that the strange, sexless
creature in the foreground of the painting was probably inspired by
a Peruvian mummy, which Munch could have seen at the 1889 Exposition
Universelle in Paris.
Sue Prideaux, biographer and author of Edvard Munch said that Munch
was hitting 30 when he painted the work and "incredibly unsuccessful as
an artist". "He had insanity in his family," she explained and "his sister had
just been committed to a madhouse" and he too feared he would go mad.
She went on to say that Munch lived near the asylum where his sister was
sectioned which was near the local abattoir, and heard the screams
coming from both of these places. The piece was sold by a businessman
Petter Olsen, whose father was friendly with the Norwegian artist.
Earlier this year, Mr Olsen said he had decided to sell The Scream because
he wanted to "offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate
this remarkable work". Proceeds of the sale are to go towards founding a
new museum, hotel and art centre in Norway.
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1 Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch's The Scream has become the
Are the following statements TRUE(T),
FALSE(F) or NOT GIVEN(NG)?
T= anonymous buyer/ unspecified buyer Line:3
(F)=Only one is owned privately.Line:6
(NG)= We don’t know whether his poems were
famous or not./1895 is not mentioned in the
text./There is a poem on the frame but we don’t
know whether it was hand-painted or not.
(T)= Lines 17-18
(NG) When and how he died are not mentioned.
(T)= Line :29
(F)= ". Proceeds of the sale are to go towards
founding a new museum, hotel and art centre in
Norway.Line: 34
Edvard Munch's iconic artwork The Scream
sold for $120m (Edited from BBC News,2012)