Edvard Munch 2008, the painting "Vampire" set a new record for his paintings when it was sold for US$38,162,000 at Sotheby's New York. Munch's image appears on the Norwegian 1,000-kroner note, along with pictures inspired by his artwork. In February 2012, a major Munch exhibition, "Edvard Munch. The Modern Eye", opened at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; the exhibition was opened by Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway. In May 2012, "The Scream" sold for US$119.9 million, and is the second most expensive artwork ever sold at an open auction. (It was surpassed in November 2013 by "Three Studies of Lucian Freud", which sold
Edvard Munch study engineering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry and math. He learned scaled and perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted his studies. The following year, much to his father's disappointment, Munch left the college determined to become a painter. His father viewed art as an "unholy trade", and his neighbors reacted bitterly and sent him anonymous letters. In contrast to his father's rabid pietism, Munch adopted an undogmatic stance toward art. He wrote his goal in his diary: "in my art I attempt to explain life and its meaning to myself." In 1881, Munch enrolled at the Royal School of