Munch's THE SCREAM Stolen From Museum
Published August 23, 2004
Sunday, one of the most famous icons in modern art — Edvard Munch's
"The Scream" (1893)-- was stolen from its home in the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. The image, a tortured individual standing on a bridge against the background of a fiery sky, has been reproduced on commercial crap more often than just about any image in modern art.
Munch (b. 1863- d.1944) was a brooding, traumatized artist (how unusual!), and his paintings shocked viewers with their stark expressions of mental depression and social and psychological isolation. His background landscapes are flooded with bright, relatively violent slashes of color from a palette that remains unmistakable in art.
Munch's women are often strange, disembodied visions of terror, but the man on the bridge in "The Scream" epitomizes the style and substance of most of Munch's early work.
— Excerpts from the story --
OSLO — A nationwide hunt was underway Monday in Norway for armed thieves who barged into a lightly guarded Oslo museum in broad daylight and ripped the Edvard Munch masterpiece "The Scream" from the wall.
Stunned visitors watched in disbelief on Sunday as several masked men threatened a member of staff at Oslo's Munch Museum with guns before taking The Scream and another Munch painting. Experts said the paintings were worth tens of millions of dollars and the thieves will likely demand a ransom for their return.
Police are looking for two or three suspects after seeing a photo taken by a witness that showed Sunday's robbery in progress.
The picture appears to show three robbers, two of whom are walking to a black car with the paintings in hand. The third robber appears to be opening the trunk.
The brazen theft has ignited a debate on Norway's lax museum security, with critics demanding tighter measures. This is the third time since 1988 that Munch works have been stolen from a Norwegian museum, and the second time, after 1994, that a version of The Scream has been stolen.
It's hard to believe a couple of folks could walk out of an art museum with one of the most famous and valuable paintings on earth, but most art museum security is about as porous as the U.S. border.
(And one has to wonder if the painting could eventually end up in the hands of the Pheonix Gallery/Aboutaam Brothers and make its way into the collection of the Cleveland Art Museum or maybe Timothy Potts and the Kimbell Art Museum?)
- Munch's THE SCREAM Stolen From Museum
- Published: August 23, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: Shark
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This is going to sound like a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway: what in the world do you DO with stolen art -- especially art that's, like, known to every schoolchild? Wouldn't it be way too hot to hold? Who could you sell it to that wouldn't be putting themselves at grave risk? And what does the putative buyer get out of the transaction, other than a burden that they themselves will somehow have to unload without alerting the authorities? Where's the profit?
You could put it up in your game room -- assuming you don't have too many guests.
Or you could ransom it for cash.
BTW, Rodney, there are literally billions in stolen art out there, not stuff that everybody would recognize, but stolen just the same.
And mainly from antiquities. Iraq, Tibet, and South America are currently being gutted of their cultural artifacts -- and a lot of them show up in your local museum -- bought with fake provenance from criminals BY curators and directors who turn a blind eye for the sake of the collection.
Also: many of the Islamic terrorists are supporting themselves with these ancient trinkets.
~Don't get me started.
BTW: Folks, as of 6:00 EST on Mon, 8/23/04
it really HASN'T BEEN FOUND.
Paulie was playin' a little funny.
Right after the looting of the Baghdad Museum, I recommended that we send the Antique Roadshow to Iraq. What can I say? I'm an idea man.
I can grasp why people would steal art in general, but something like "The Scream" or "Mona Lisa" or a Vermeer -- something that commands the attention of the world -- is a lot harder to fathom. It seems like you're just stealing a massive headache. I'm sure there's some advantage I'm just not seeing.
I believe people steal famous art to sell to black market private collectors. You know, one's who will pay for the piece and put it away in a vault some where to never be seen by the light of day.
Turns out they are stolen for ransom. From Slate.com:
"The stolen Scream is one of four versions painted by the Norwegian artist. The Munch Museum houses two of them, a third is in a private collection, and the fourth is in Oslo's National Gallery, from which it was stolen a decade ago. In that instance, the government refused the thieves' demand for $1 million for the painting's return, and it was rescued three months later.
Officials expect to receive a ransom demand this time, too. France's Liberation noted that The Scream has "the honor, or perhaps the curse" of being "instantly recognizable almost anywhere on the planet." The Independent of Britain noted that the paintings are so famous that selling them would be nearly impossible.
(As I suspected.)
Joe, re: Antiques Roadshow in Iraq -- man, how did I miss that?! I started laffin' when I read your line.
What a routine I coulda done!
Oh well. I'm sure they'll be more opportunities.
(Does Iran, Syria, or North Korea, or Florida have a decent art museum?)
"Yep, I was down to the pawnshop getting my upper plate out of hock - goddam I missed those choppers - with some cash from the collection plate (just borrowed, mind you) and I saw this picher that looked one of those blow-up punch toys I once saw at a house I broke into, so I asked 'how much?' ...
"...An impassioned plea has been made to thieves who stole Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream on Sunday, asking them not to wreck the fragile picture."
More from the BBC, including photos of the robbery, and a diagram showing how it took place.
BTW: One hates to imagine how much damage a terrorist could do to a world-class art museum -- and this incident could certainly give them ideas.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/18949)
It's been found
Scroll down: you'll see it.