Undervalued

Edvard Munch, "Madonna" (1895–97)

One of the artist’s most famous images, second perhaps only to "The Scream," "Madonna" was bought at Christie’s London during an October 1999 German and Austrian sale, when it carried an unpublished estimate in the region of $10 million. Cohen acquired the work two years later from dealers David Nash and Jens Faurschou during a major Munch show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, where the burned and bare-breasted Madonna was kept in the back room, for a price somewhat above $10 million, according to a knowledgeable source.

Since then, the market for Munch’s most famous works has exploded on a global scale. Even in today’s somewhat saner atmosphere, the Madonna could easily match the current Munch record set by “Vampire” last November, when it made $38,162,500 at Sotheby’s.

Courtesy Sotheby's