"Scream" stolen at gunpoint
Edvard Munch's famous and iconic painting Scream, from 1893, and also the painting Madonna, has been stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in broad daylight. The museum was full of visitors when two armed and masked robbers struck, threatened museum staff with a gun, took the paintings down from the wall and ran off to escape in a waiting Audi A6. Nobody was injured, but one staff is being treated for shock.
A frame was later found near a spot where the escaping car was seen by witnesses.
There are four originals of Scream. Three are in the Munch museum, two of which is in storage, and one is in the National Gallery. In 1994, the latter was stolen but later recovered.
Scream is one of the most widely recogniced artworks in the world, endlessly parodied and imitated. The estimated value of 450M NOK (~$67M) does not do its iconic and national value justice. Madonna, also a famous paining by Munch, is worth 150M (~$22.4M)
Update: Norway's largest newspaper VG has written an English newsitem about this robbery. I haven't seen them ever do that before. Aftenposten has an English language section, and of course cover this robbery. Nettavisen's English staff sleeps late today.
PS: The above linked VG article says the Munch museum has two not three Scream versions, and that one is in private ownership. I have no idea what is correct.
PS 2: Wow! It's the top world headline on Google News. Here's CNN.
PS 3: The WebMuseum in Paris has a nice page with many pictures of Edvard Munch paintings. Here is the background for the artwork.
PS 4: Munch expert Knut Forsberg (Norwegian article) estimates the two paintings to be worth 650M NOK (~$97M). Obviously, nobody can sell this on the open market. Even the black market would be difficult. The robbers were professional, so I guess they have given this some thought. Either the paintings are stolen on order from an unscrupulous private collector, or they plan to demand a ransom for the artworks.
PS 5: I have earlier blogged about a number of ruthless robberies in Norway. I can't say for sure that armed robbery is on the increase as a trend, but there sure has been an unprecedented number of spectacular crimes.
Update 2: The glass and frames for both paintings have now been found, broken, in a garbage container. Naturally the paintings are easier to hide and transport without the frames. They were found on Carl Berners Plass (square), for those who know their way around Oslo (map).
PS 6: Note to BBC News: The painting is called "Scream" (Norwegian: "Skrik") not "The Scream" (which would be "Skriket" in Norwegian). The Beeb also seems ignorant that the painting exists in several versions, and falsely says this is the same painting that was stolen in 1994. Wrong museum, wrong material, wrong artwork, but right name. One out of four? No good. They also find an art critic, Brian Sewell, who indignantly says this painting is not so popular among "art connoisseurs" since it is popular with the vulgar public. Oh well.
Update 3: The getaway car has now been found, by Sinsen tennis club in Oslo.
Update 4: Experts at the museum qre now worried that the paintings will be damaged, since the robbers threw away the protective glass and frame. Scream is painted on board, not on canvas, and it easily breaks.
Also, as I wrote above, some expect demands for ransom from the robbers. The problem with paying is that it will be an invitation to steal more artworks, which are very hard to protect and display to the public at the same time.
Update 5: More details are coming in. The robbers dropped the painting twice on their way to the getaway car, according to witnesses. This increases the fear that they may damage the paintings now that they are not protected by the frames.
One of the robbers, at least, spoke Norwegian.
2:10:44 PM 
|
