Thursday

Munch Millions For ShipYard Boss

Harland & Wolff shipyard owner Fred Olsen is £17m better off today thanks to the sale of a unique art collection. The 77-year-old Norwegian shipping magnate sold the paintings - the works of fellow countryman Edvard Munch - at top London sales house Sothebys yesterday. The eight-piece collection had been in the Olsen family since the 1920s. Mr Olsen said he had put them on the market for "security and tax reasons". One of the works, Summer Day, painted in 1904, was sold for a record price of £6,168,000, much more than the expected £3.5m price tag, to an anonymous bidder. It is said to be the most important Munch painting to be offered for sale since Girls On A Bridge fetched a world-record price of £4.4m in 1996. The collection, billed as the greatest by the Norwegian artist ever put on sale, sold for almost £17m, far more than the estimated £12m. For the full story - click the title Irish Art