The Scream

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is a powerful series of artworks created between 1893 and 1910, profoundly symbolizing modern anxiety. Comprising four main versions—two painted and two in pastel—the series captures a skeletal figure screaming under a blood-red sky. One of the pastel versions, created in 1895, achieved a record-breaking price of $119,922,500 when it was sold at Sotheby's in New York on May 2, 2012, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction at that time. This version, lauded for its vibrant colors, is notably the only one of the four in private hands.