- US financier bought Munch's 'Scream'

According to The Wall Street Journal, it was the US financier Leon Black who bought Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's 1895 pastel "Scream" at Sothesby's auction in May.

Who the buyer was has up to now been a mystery, but the newspaper now presents the story, quoting sources close to the financier.

The New York financier paid Sotheby's nearly $120 million for the painting, a record for a work of art sold at auction.

Munch created four versions of "The Scream," all between 1893 and 1910, but Mr. Black's is the only one not in an Oslo museum and the first to come up at auction.

Black (60) is a well known art collector, and his $750 million collection already includes drawings by Vincent van Gogh and Raphael, watercolors by J.M.W. Turner, cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso and ancient Chinese bronzes.

He also sits on the boards of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

(NRK/WSJ)