A Rare Chance to Buy a Munch

Here at Museyon we love museums, but when it comes to getting up close and personal with great art, nothing beats the auction house. Almost once a season (the big auctions happen in November and May) a rare gem turns up, bringing a bit of adrenaline to the auction house. This time it’s Christie’s and Fertility, one of the last paintings by Edvard Munch to remain in private hands.

Dating to the height of Munch’s career in the 1890s, painting features a lush landscape with a man and a woman believed by scholars to be Tulla Larsen, a woman with whom Munch had a dark and dangerous that ended with a gunshot wound (as depicted in the 1907 painting The Death of Marat).

At about 4 feet by 4 feet, the paintings is one of the largest Munch ever created (not including the massive murals for the Aula at the University of Oslo and the Munch room of City Hall). It won’t come cheap, though. When the painting hits the block at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale sale in New York on May 4, it’s expected to fetch $30 million, possibly even besting the artist’s current record price, $38 million, set by The Vampire, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2008. Throw in the 12% buyer’s premium and you’re looking at one pricy painting.

If you don’t have that kind of cash, don’t worry. The painting will be on view–totally gratis–from April 30 to the day of the sale.

Christie’s New York
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, New York, U.S.A.
+1 212 636 2000
www.christies.com

Edvard Munch (1863-1945), Fertility, oil on canvas. Property from a Private Scandinavian Collection. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2010 [via artdaily.org]