Extravagant Artwork Auctions

At McTear's, we auction many fabulous and extravagant pieces of art which are valued by our experts. Our bidders really have an eye and appreciation for beautiful, interesting and inspirational artwork, but how much would you pay for some of the world's most sought-after artwork?

Have a look at some of the below artwork by famous artists, which have had their hammers crashing down at humongous sums of money - perhaps some of the masterpieces you own will be the same in a few years!


Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur, Pablo Picasso

Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur translates to 'Nude, Green Leaves and Bust' by the well known Impressionist artist, Pablo Picasso. It was painted in just one day in March 1932. By 2010, this painting was auctioned for $106, 500,00. Wow, not bad for a day's work!


Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh

This painting is by the very well known Dutch Impressionist artist, Van Gogh. He painted two similar versions of this portrait, one of which can be viewed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the other which was purchased by Ryoei Saito, a business man from Japain for just $82.5 million... JUST?!


Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer, Gustav Klimt

The above is a 'Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer', painted by Gustav Klimt in 1907. By 2006, the painting was selling in auction for $135,000,000, to the cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder.
Interestingly, this sale came after a court order placed by the Austrian government, to return it to the artist's heir after many years disputing that the painting had been stolen by Nazi's in World War II - Quite some attention and adventure for one painting!


The Scream, Edvard Munch

One of four that exist, this most vibrant version of the original iconic image created by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch sold at auction in May 2012 for almost $120,000,000.

The 19th century image, portraying what the artist called "the great scream in nature" soon became the subject of countless parodies throughout the 20th century and, today, remains on a par with Da Vinci's Mona Lisa as one of the most recognised images in the world.

Keep up to date with the pieces of our more affordable artwork up for auction on our website, and also see our Facebook and Twitter to ensure you hear everything first... or even have some artwork you own valued by us to see what you could get at auction.

A Record Breaking 'Scream'

This week was not only an exciting week for McTear's with our various auctions, it also saw the record breaking sale of the world famous painting: 'The Scream' at an auction house in New York.

Edvard Munch's 'The Scream', painted in 1895 sold for a record breaking $119.9million (roughly £74 million) at an Auction yesterday at Sotheby's in New York. The previous record for a piece of artwork sold at auction was for Picasso's Nude, Green, Leaves and Bust sold by Christies in 2010 for $106.5million but 'The Scream' has now exceeded this and now holds the title as most expensive piece of art sold at auction.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/may/03/scream-price-edvard-munch

In an article on The Guardian by Jonathan Jones, he describes the painting as a 'poet in colour', portraying feelings and as the sky of blood and despair are revealed in this painting, the feelings, like in most of his work, are dark.

Born in December, 1863 Munch was a Norwegian painter and print maker. His paintings conveyed great symbolism most of which towards that of spiritual anguish which can be seen in 'The Scream'.  This symbolism portrayed in his paintings can be owed to his father who was described as being extremely religious and would amuse his children with graphic ghost stories and tales. Living a long life, Munch sadly died at the age of 80 years old, leaving behind him a legacy and paintings that today are valued by many and famous around the world.

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