One of the four principal versions of “The Scream” is in private hands.
Edvard Munch made four major versions of the composition: two pastels and two paintings. The 1893 painted version belongs to Norway’s National Museum, while the 1893 pastel and the 1910 painted version are held by the Munch Museum in Oslo.
The privately owned work is the 1895 pastel version. Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen owned it before it was sold at Sotheby’s in 2012 for US$119,922,500 including the buyer’s premium. American financier Leon Black bought it, making that pastel the only one of the four principal versions not held by a Norwegian museum.
The count refers to the four major unique versions, not every reproduction. Munch also created a lithographic stone in 1895, from which approximately four dozen prints were made, along with later copies and related works. Those prints do not change the answer because they are separate graphic impressions rather than additional original versions of the four-part group.