Edvard Munch's woodcut prints dominated Sotheby's auction of Prints & Multiples - Old Master, Modern & Contemporary in London yesterday (September 17), with Evening, Melancholy headlining.
 Munch's work is prized as some of the most innovative and influential in modern art |
The print, a very rare piece from 1896, sold for £962,500 ($1.5m), making a 28.3% increase on its £750,000 high estimate. The market for Munch's work remains very strong following the $119m record sale of The Scream in May 2012.
Evening, Melancholy was followed by Munch's Two Women on the Shore, which was given a £400,000-500,000 valuation prior to the sale, but was propelled to a 25.3% increase on estimate of £626,500 ($996,304).
 Warhol chose to reinvent The Scream in the 1980s |
The third highest bids of the sale were seen by Andy Warhol's screenprint interpretation of Munch's The Scream, which was produced in 1984. Estimated at £100,000-150,000, it sold for £218,500 ($374,474) - a 45.6% increase.
Warhol's colourful depiction of Queen Elizabeth II from the Reigning Queens series also featured, bringing £86,500 ($137,558) against its £45,000 high estimate.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing lots of the auction was a set of 12 lithographs, which were printed by Charles Sorlier under the supervision of Marc Chagall. They translated the artist's designs for the stained glass windows of the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre near Jerusalem into print.
Printed in an edition of 150 in 1964, the set sold for £116,500 ($185,266), up 55.3% on the £55,000-75,000 estimate.
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Recent and related articles
· Abanindranath Tagore's Untitled (Siva-Simartini) makes record $556,000 | 18 September 2013
· Guosong's Midnight Sun to rise to $207,000? | 17 September 2013
· Picasso's Apres la Pique linocut to auction with $60,000 estimate | 17 September 2013
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Images: Sotheby's
