Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is seen in this undated handout photograph released in London. -Reuters Photo

NEW YORK: The only privately owned version of Edvard Munch's masterpiece “The Scream” will go on the block at Sotheby's in New York in May, valued at more than $80 million, the auction house said Tuesday.

“The iconic work is one of the most instantly recognizable images in both art history and popular culture, perhaps second only to the Mona Lisa,” Sotheby's said.

Munch created four versions of “The Scream” between 1893 and 1944, each showing a figure holding its head and mouth ajar in a moment of existential anguish set against a vividly colored landscape.

The work to be auctioned May 2 was created in 1895 in pastel on board. The only “Scream” in private hands, it was part of a collection left by shipping dynasty scion Thomas Olsen, a friend and supporter of Munch's, Sotheby's said.

The others are owned by the Munch Museum in Oslo and the National Gallery of Norway.

Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby's Modern Art and Impressionism Department, said the work's value could exceed $80 million, given its rarity and what other masterpieces have brought in recent auctions. Munch died in his native Norway in January 1944 at the age of 80.