“My pictures are not art, but life itself.” - Edvard Munch

A seminal work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch brought over $54 million at Sotheby’s auction of impressionist and modern art on Monday. In a statement, Sotheby's described "a buoyant atmosphere in the saleroom" for the sale in New York that totalled $157.7 million.

The figural work “Girls on the Bridge” sold previously in 1996 for $7.7 million and again in 2008 for $30.8 million, each time setting a record for the artist, although trailing the artist's iconic "The Scream" which brought $119.9 million in 2012.

Other sale highlights included Picasso's five-foot-wide “The Painter and His Model,” which fetched $12.9 million, just above its low presale estimate of $12 million.

Picasso's 1951 bust of his lover and muse Francoise Gilot, “Head of a Woman,” brought $8.4 million.