Billionaire Leon Black’s ‘Scream’ something to shout about
- Last Updated: 5:37 AM, July 12, 2012
- Posted: 12:58 AM, July 12, 2012
Even at a price that would make most millionaires scream, he could afford it.
New York billionaire Leon Black shelled out almost $120 million for Edvard Munch’s masterpiece, “The Scream,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The pastel — reproduced on millions of posters, T-shirts and even coffee mugs worldwide — sold for a record $119.9 million at auction at Sotheby’s in Manhattan two months ago during a 12-minute auction.
The buyer had been a closely guarded secret until sources yesterday identified Black — worth an estimated $3.5 billion — as the piece’s new owner.
The guessing-game now shifts to what Black, 60, plans to do with the work — one of four versions produced by the artist between 1893 and 1910.
Black is on the boards of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
While Munch created four versions of “The Scream,” Black’s is the only one in the United States, and the only pastel. The others, all paintings, remain in Munch’s native Norway.
