Edvard Munch work sells for record 25 million pounds
Vampire, seen by many as the sister of Munch's fabled painting The Scream, went under the hammer for the first time in New York after more than 70 years in the hands of a private collector.
It fetched 38.2 million dollars (£24.3m), including the buyer's premium, and broke the existing Munch record of 30.8 million dollars (£19.6m), which was set by Girls on a Bridge in May, a Sotheby's spokesman said.
He added that the work represented love, sex and death" and that the "emotionally charged image numbers among the most iconic compositions in art history".
It was also the subject of controversy when it was first unveiled, fuelling early-20th century fears about women's liberation.
Simon Shaw, senior vice president and head of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York, said: "Few paintings pack as hard a punch as Munch's Vampire.
"Like The Scream, it distills extraordinarily intense feelings into a simple, unforgettable motif...
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It fetched 38.2 million dollars (£24.3m), including the buyer's premium, and broke the existing Munch record of 30.8 million dollars (£19.6m), which was set by Girls on a Bridge in May, a Sotheby's spokesman said.
He added that the work represented love, sex and death" and that the "emotionally charged image numbers among the most iconic compositions in art history".
It was also the subject of controversy when it was first unveiled, fuelling early-20th century fears about women's liberation.
Simon Shaw, senior vice president and head of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art department in New York, said: "Few paintings pack as hard a punch as Munch's Vampire.
"Like The Scream, it distills extraordinarily intense feelings into a simple, unforgettable motif...