The Scream Stolen at Gunpoint I saw Edvard Munch's the scream, and his Madonna at the museum in Oslo where this terrible crime occurred. The colors in the image I posted do it no justice. What is happening to people?? You really have to have visited Oslo and Norway to appreciate just how shocking this is. Here is the story... HoustonChronicle Aug. 22, 2004, 11:23AM 'The Scream' stolen from museum at gunpoint One of Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' paintings was among two of his works stolen from an Oslo museum at gunpoint. OSLO, Norway -- Armed men stormed into an art museum today, threatened staff at gunpoint and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" before the eyes of stunned museum-goers. The thieves yanked the paintings off the walls of Oslo's Munch museum and loaded them into a waiting car outside, said a witness, French radio producer Francois Castang. Police spokeswoman Hilde Walsoe said the two or three armed men threatened a museum employee with a handgun to give them the two paintings, including one of four versions of "The Scream" -- Munch's famed depiction of an anguished figure with its head in its hands. "No one has been physically injured, and the suspects escaped in an Audi A6. We are searching for the suspects with all available means," Walsoe told The Associated Press. "We found the escape car, and we have found many pieces of the frames." Many museum visitors panicked and thought they were being attacked by terrorists. "He was wearing a black face mask and something that looked like a gun to force a female security guard down on the floor," visitor Marketa Cajova told NTB public radio. "What's strange is that in this museum, there weren't any means of protection for the paintings, no alarm bell," Castang told France Inter radio. "The paintings were simply attached by wire to the walls," he said. "All you had to do is pull on the painting hard for the cord to break loose -- which is what I saw one of the thieves doing." Castang said police arrived on the scene 15 minutes later. Visitors were ushered into the museum's cafeteria. "We don't have all the details on the situation, but we are searching for the suspects in the air and on land," Police Spokesman Kjell Moerk told the public radio network NRK. The stolen "Madonna" was painted in 1893-1894, depicting an eroticized madonna with a blood-red halo in a dark, swirling aura. Munch later produced woodcut lithographs with a similar depiction. There are four versions of "The Scream." The Munch Museum had two of them, a private collector owns the third and the fourth is on display at Oslo's National Gallery. "They were all painted by Munch, and they are all just as valuable," museum spokeswoman Jorunn Christoffersen told the AP. "Still, these paintings are not possible to sell, and it is impossible to put a price tag on them." It was the second time in 10 years that "The Scream" has been stolen. In February 1994, the version on display at Oslo's National Gallery was taken and remained missing for nearly three months. Police ultimately recovered the work, which is on fragile paper, undamaged in a hotel in Asgardstrand, about 40 miles south of the capital, Oslo. Three Norwegians were arrested. At the time, investigators said the trio tried to ransom the painting, demanding $1 million from the government. it was never paid. Munch, a Norwegian painter and graphic artist who worked in Germany as well as his home country, developed an emotionally charged style that was of great importance in the birth of the 20th century Expressionist movement. He painted "The Scream" in 1893, as part of his "Frieze of Life" series, in which sickness, death, anxiety and love are central themes. The National Art Museum owns 58 paintings by Munch, who died in 1944 at the age of 81. http://www.HoustonChronicle.com
Some tourist even had time to take pictures of the thieves putting the paintings into the Audi. Later, the Audi and the pictures' frames were found...saw it on TV. It's actually surprising that a painting worth $ 50-70 mio. is not secured in a better way than that. There was a picture of that painting in one of my schoolbooks...I remember that it kind of scared me as a kid .
For everyone, I guess. I had an image with my post, but no luck. Do you remember the thread, not too long ago, where Norway was discussed a bit because of their ranking for "standard of living?" They just took a hit.
How do you fence something like that? It's not like it's an obscure painting, even folks not too knowledgeable about art would recognize it right off the bat.
Didn't you see that movie with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in it? What was it called, Entrapment? there's plenty of business for art theives.
Wow. I saw this on the news a little while ago and couldn't believe it. We can't know for sure, but I would guess the thieves already had a buyer for the painting before they stole it.
Normally these don't go on the open market for the simple reason that they would be fools to do so. Like you said, they already had a buyer,who will probably just keep the painting in his house and admire it till the day he dies. Or the thieves could use the painting to collect a ransom. This is seldom the case, but possible. Did I mention art collectors are some of the most eccentric people you will ever meet.
They can't do anything with the paintings other than sell it on the black market to some crazy billionaire. Of course, something like that would raise a red flag and the people would get caught. These schemes never work. I think, mostly, the people just want to be famous for being able to do it. A game. Art museums in Europe are some of the worst run and secure organizations in the world.
The Thomas Crown Affair (the Pierce Brosnan one...never saw the original) is also a good movie involving art theives.
The paintings have been insured for a considerable amount against fire, water damage and such. But it has not been insured at all against THEFT. I guess they're just to valuable to be stolen, huh? Well, in fact the reason they mentioned that they were not insured against theft was the collection is so valuable that it would be insanely expensive to insure it. so no insurance, no greater protection - it all adds up very nice.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! (Somebody had to do it.)
I would suggest that they had a buyer. If it had been for the game of it, you'd think they would have done something a little sneakier than a smash and grab job. Probably about money. Either that or some chick demanded her man go and get it.
The actually probably have multiple buyers and will sell it to all of them. Think about it: no would would buy it unless it was obviously stolen (otherwise they would know the seller doesn't really have it). Well it's obviously stolen (and stolen is such a way as to create headlines around the world) so the people who say they have it have have credibility with regards to whether they actually have it. If you buy it, you can't show it to ANYONE. You just have to hide it and secretly admire it (as someone else posted) until they day they die. So, what do the theives do? They have a master forger create several copies. Then they arrange the sale of the painting to multiple people. Then they steal the real one in a daring, daylight robbery which makes international headlines (now the people who have agreed to buy the painting think the sellers have the real thing). They sell the fakes to the buyers (probably keeping the real one for themselves or maybe selling it to the buyer most likely to spot forgeries). Each buyer thinks they have the original and have paid a ton of cash for what they think is the original. Since the painting is stolen they can't have any old appraiser check it out. It's brilliant. It's also been done before. They think it happened to the Mona Lisa. There are people who think the Mona Lisa in the Louve is not really the actuall Mona Lisa but a fake designed to make the public think the real one wasn't actually stolen (which it has been - at least once before but returned). Also, there was a story called "The Theft of the Mona Lisa" which described what just happened to the Scream (only with the Mona Lisa). Brilliant crime but not original.
A museum with no metal detectors, no armed guards and no alarms - makes for a very boring heist. I'm amazed this place hasn't been cleaned out already.
I like the plot, but an even better real life scenario could exist, what if the museum was struggling financially and orchestrated the fake theft on their own. Then sold numerous fakes all over the world to finance the failing museum. They pretend to regain the orginal. All the while keeping the orginal hanging on the museum wall. As you said, nobody would be able to talk so nobody would know the difference. The buyer would demand to know they had the "orginal" when they really had the fakes. That could easily be proven because the orchestrators have people on the inside already. Done deal. The only squeaky wheel is the man who faked all 20 copies. But you can kill him.
So it is like a "Catch 22" situation. Or better yet, it is like a team struggling to win at baseball and their revenues suck. They can do better if they sign free agents, but that would increase their payroll and with revenues sucking, they get buried financially.
Not really. It was stolen in 1911 by an Italian who got caught when he tried to sell it to the Uffizi (he felt it belonged in Italy). Only tabloid-type newspapers thought a fake was made. Anyone who believes it now is silly. With modern microscopy and dating methods we know the chemical and molecular composition of the work. A DaVinci would be really hard to fake because of all of the crazy techniques he incorporated. Someone would have to find all period pigments and medias and paint it on period and regional canvas and artificially age the multiple varnishes (you can do this cosmetically, but it would be superficial and easily discernable), etc.. A Munch would be easier to fake, but wouldn't be worth the effort because even selling a fake would get you busted. Generally, in recent years, paintings that get stolen always turn back up. Stay away from Hollywood.
