The gossip in the lobby of Sotheby’s on the upper east side of Manhattan was all over the place that evening in early May when Edvard Munch’s The Scream went under the gavel for $119.9m, a record for any art work sold at an auction.

Did the state of Qatar buy it, or Bill Gates maybe? Surely it was a Russian billionaire or perhaps one the nouveau very riche of China. What most people agreed was this — it was unlikely any art museum could have plunked down so mighty asum.