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London (dpa) - Eight masterpieces by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) from the private collection of a wealthy shipowner were sold for nearly 17 million pounds (30 million dollars) at auction at Sotheby's Tuesday evening in London.
The works, billed as the greatest collection of Munch paintings ever on the international market, had been estimated to fetch a maximum of 12 million pounds.
They were previously owned by Norwegian shipowner and sponsor Thomas Olsen, who bought the paintings from a Berlin gallery in the 1930s, after they had been declared "degenerate art" by the Nazi regime.
Munch's 1904 painting "Summer Day" was sold Tuesday to an anonymous bidder for a record 6.1 million pounds, far exceeding its maximum estimate of 3.5 million pounds.
Auctioneers said it was the most important Munch painting to be offered for sale since "Girls On A Bridge" fetched a world-record 4.4 million pounds at auction in 1996 in New York.
Other works sold in London included Munch's striking "Self- Portrait In Front Of Two-Coloured Background," painted in 1904 and believed to be the first such work appearing at auction. It was sold for 3.59 million pounds.
The "Self-Portrait recovering from Spanish Flu," painted in 1918, went for 1.6 million pounds.
Olsen, who is 77, said he sold the paintings for "security and tax" reasons.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
