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Iconic Munch Could Fetch $35M

Vampire , in private hands, comes up for auction

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 23, 2008 6:19 AM CDT

(Newser) – A masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch that has spent 70 years in private hands will be sold on the open market, reveals the Independent, where it's expected to fetch $35 million. Vampire, painted in 1894, is the last privately owned work from a 20-canvas series that also includes The Scream. The painting has been on long-term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

"There have been past Munch works to be sold in recent times, such as a wonderful group of works in 2006 and a painting earlier this year, but this one is a real, knock 'em dead masterpiece," said a Sotheby's exec.

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Edvard Munch's Vampire will come up for sale, with an estimate of $35 million. (Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art)

A visitor looks at Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" after it was restored, conserved and put back on show to the public at the Munch Museum in Oslo Friday May 23, 2008. (AP Photo)

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Vampire caused a sensation, touching on turn-of-the-century fears about women's liberation. Some were outraged by its perverse, almost sado-masochistic depiction of passion. It was shocking to Berlin society. - Sotheby's head of Impressionist and modern art

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Iconic Munch Could Fetch $35M