'The Scream' sells for record $120m

Edvard Munch's masterpiece The Scream sold for nearly $120m, setting a new record as the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction.

The vibrant pastel was conservatively estimated to sell for about $80m at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art auction in New York.

But two determined bidders competing via telephone on Wednesday emerged from an initial group of seven, driving the final price to $119,922,500 over the course of a nearly 15-minute bidding war.

The version of The Scream on the block was one of four paintings executed by the Scandinavian between 1893 and 1910.

Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler reports from New York.