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Question of the Week: Jeff Koons, Donald Trump, Wolfgang Puck and Others Weigh In on the $119 Million Sale of Munch’s The Scream

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By Velvet Roper staff 5/11/12 6:09pm

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Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Velvet Roper, the Question of the Week.

In the past week, one rife with huge art auctions, there was one that caught everyone’s attention, because of its utterly iconic screeching man and its sale at the record-breaking sum of $119.9 million: Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

During The Observer’s typically densely packed social schedule (Met Ball, James Beard Awards, and, like, five cancer benefits!), we managed to snag a few notables for a quotable on the painting:

What did you think when you heard about the blockbuster art sale of Edvard Munch’s The Scream?

Click through the slideshow to see answers from the likes of Wolfgang Puck, Jeff Koons, and Donald Trump, and see who was excited about the sale, who felt sympathy for Vincent Van Gogh who died broke, and who didn’t have any idea what we were talking about.
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The Painting in Question

Edvard Munch's The Scream
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Bee Shaffer at the Met Ball

"I don’t have that kind of money."
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Luke Russert at the Gala for Good

"The whole art scene is so overblown. Who determines the price of a piece of art? And then did you hear about that mobster who allegedly buried those Manet's in his backyard?"
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Donna Karan and Gabby Karan de Flice at the Solving Kids’ Cancer Benefit

Donna Karan: “I hope that money comes in when I sell my husbands’ artwork.” Gabby Karan de Flice: “I’ve never heard of it!”
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Jeff Koons at the Met Ball

"Would I pay $119 million for The Scream? I think it’s a wonderful work… but art is something that you really don’t have to purchase. When you do acquire something you take on the responsibility to try to help preserve it, [but if you don’t buy art] you can enjoy [it] and carry it with you without all that responsibility for having it."
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Wolfgang Puck at the James Beard Awards

“There’s so much new money out there. I’m sure [$119 million for The Scream] is too much because it didn’t get to the artist who needed it. Most of the people like Van Gogh didn’t have any money—today, his pictures sell for $50, $80, $100 million dollars.”
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Donald Trump at the Met Ball

"I’d rather buy real estate."
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Chrissy Barker at the Solving Kids’ Cancer Benefit

"My son saw [the painting] on the TV the other day and he said, ‘Mama I could draw that.’"
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Coco Rocha at the Gala for Good

"Why not? Maybe they got it half price?"
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Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods America, at the James Beard Awards

"I have a degree in art history from Vassar College. So you may be talking to the wrong guy about that. The value is what the market will bear. I don’t care whether it’s a gazillion-dollar hamburger in Las Vegas, a meal at Per Se, a piece of art: if you can get the dough for it, God bless you. Is it weird that we have so many other things that we should potentially be valuing higher? Yes. We should pay teachers and firemen more money."
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Billy Magnussen, actor in Damsels in Distress, at the Cinema Society after party for Hick

"Is that the one with bald guy? Whoa. I don't know, is that a lot of money for art?"