Edvard Munch painting that was hidden from Nazis in a barn alongside his famous work The Scream sells at auction for nearly £17million
- Edvard Munch painting ‘Dance on the Beach’ hidden from Nazis sold for £17m
- It was hidden with The Scream in Norway forest by his friend Thomas Olsen
A huge painting by Edvard Munch that was hidden from the Nazis in a barn alongside a version of The Scream has sold at a London auction for nearly £17million.
The 13ft long work, titled ‘Dance on the Beach’, had belonged to Norwegian shipowner Thomas Olsen who hung it in the first class lounge of a passenger liner that sailed between Oslo and Newcastle.
After Germany invaded his homeland in 1940 Olsen took the painting down and stashed it in a barn deep in a Norwegian forest to prevent the Nazis from finding it.
Olsen, a friend and neighbour of artist Munch, also hid a version of The Scream there.
The paintings remained in the barn for the duration of the Second World War and were then kept in the Olsen family afterwards.
Edvard Munch 13ft long painting, titled ‘Dance on the Beach’ that was hidden from the Nazis in a barn alongside a version of The Scream has sold at a London auction for almost £17m
The painting by Norwegian expressionist painter and printmaker Edvard Munch (pictured) was hidden from the Nazis in a barn along with The Scream
The Scream painting was sold by them in 2012 for a record £98m.
READ MORE: The misery of Edvard Munch: Painter of The Scream was a drunken depressive obsessed with sex and death who hated his ‘cursed’ family
‘Dance on the Beach’ has been exhibited only twice since the war and now the Olsen family have sold it at auction at Sothebys in London for £16.9m.
The proceeds of the sale will be split between the vendors and the family of the German-Jewish art historian who was made to sell it by the Nazis.
Curt Glaser was friends of Munch and his biographer but had to flee Berlin in 1933 for Switzerland.
Lucian Simmons, vice chairman and Sotheby’s worldwide head of restitution, said: ‘This exceptional painting is made all the more special due to its extraordinary provenance, a history that has unfolded since it was painted 115 years ago.
‘Intertwined in the story of this painting are two families – both leading patrons of Munch.
‘Indeed, so important were the Glasers and the Olsens to Munch, that he painted both Henrietta Olsen and Elsa Glaser (wives of Thomas and Curt).
‘We are proud to have played a part in the painting’s next chapter.
‘It sold for £16.9 million – placing it among the top ten prices ever achieved for the artist at auction.’
The painting was originally commissioned by German film and theatre director Max Reinhardt, whose productions were influenced by Munch’s works, in 1906.
The work was one of 12 canvases by Munch that formed part of an enormous frieze called ‘images from the modern psyche’ for Reinhardt’s avant-garde theatre in Berlin.
The painting is said to capture a sense of life playing out before the artist’s eyes and in the foreground are two of his greatest loves – Tulla Larsen and Millie Thaulow.
Munch had a turbulent affair with Larsen that ended with him shooting his own hand in the heat of passion.
Norwegian shipowner Thomas Olsen, a friend and neighbour of artist Munch, also hid a version of The Scream (pictured) in the barn
Art handlers Dance on the Beach before the Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction at Sotheby’s auction house in London
When the theatre was refurbished in 1912, the frieze was split up and this work was acquired by Prof Glaser.
He reluctantly sold it in 1934 to Thomas Olsen, whose father Petter Olsen founded famous shipping firm Fred Olsen & Co.
Olsen assembled around 30 works by the artist, including one of four versions of The Scream.
Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s vice chairman of fine arts, said: ‘Munch was the ultimate rebel, and every brushstroke on this frieze is utterly modern and purely expressive.
‘This composition reimagines one of Munch’s greatest images, the Dance of Life, which was the culmination of the artist’s Frieze of Life and places love at the centre of the artist’s “modern life of the soul”.’
EDVARD MUNCH’S THE SCREAM
‘The Scream’ is the popular name given to each of five versions of a composition created by the Expressionist artist Edvard Munch between 1893 and 1910.
The German title Munch gave these works is Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature).
The works show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a swirling orange sky.
Edvard Munch created the five versions in various media, including paint and pastel.
It is estimated that each composition is worth over £110 million.
Some say it was a volcanic sunset after the 1883 Krakatau eruption, while others think the wavy sky shows a scream from nature.
The first version of ‘The Scream’ was released in 1893.
It depicts a dark human-like figure clutching its head in apparent horror against the backdrop of a swirling, red-orange sky.
There are several known versions of The Scream: an 1893 tempera on cardboard; an 1893 crayon on cardboard; an 1895 pastel on cardboard that billionaire Leon Black bought for nearly $120 million at auction; and a tempera on hard cardboard thought to have been painted in 1910.
A two-tone lithograph was created in 1895, and is the version that was displayed in Britain in 2019.
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