Introduction:
“The Scream” is an oil pastel painting by the Norweigan artist “Edvard Munch”. The painting is a portrait of an agonized man screaming, and symbolises the anxiety of a modern man. There were four versions of the scream painted by Edvard; the first was exhibited in the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway. The paintings were stolen twice, which helped boost The Scream’s popularity and fame.
The First theft:
In 1994, on the 12th of February, at 6:30 AM (the same day the winter Olympics started in Lillehammer), two masked men broke into the National Gallery of Oslo and stole the famous art piece “The Scream”. The bandits had set up a ladder up to the window of the gallery and snuck in quietly. The men picked up the painting off the wall and left a note in its place reading “thanks for the poor security”. Reports say this operation only took 50 seconds. The painting was moved to a second-story gallery and the thieves demanded from The National Gallery of Oslo a ransom of 1,000,000$. After the thieves’ demand was denied by the gallery, the Norwegian police, in alliance with the British police, set up a sting operation to catch the thieves. Two undercover officers offered to buy the painting from the bandits for $250,000 USD, and the painting was recovered in a hotel in the beach resort of Åsgårdstrand.
The Second Theft:
In 2004, on the 22nd of August at 11:20 AM, The Scream was stolen for the second time- but this time, it was accompanied by another one of Edvard’s paintings, “Madonna”. On the day of the theft (a similar scenario to the first theft), two masked gunmen armed with a .357 Magnum pistol entered the Munch Museum in Oslo and stole the fourth version of The Scream with “Madonna”. Startled museum visitors watched, while a quick-witted bystander took a picture of the gunmen entering their car. Witnesses quoted that the paintings were easy to steal, only attached to the wall by a wire, and that if you tugged hard enough, you could easily get them off the wall. Oslo’s city government posted an award of 2 million Norwegian kroner for information leading to the recovery of The Scream. To ‘sweeten’ the deal, (literally), M&M the candy brand also announced that they would give 2 million M&M’s in exchange for the return of The Scream. Finally, on the 31st of August 2006, The Scream and The Madonna were recovered. The police have not released details as to how and where the pieces were found- just that they were safe. In 2008, the Scotland Yard detective involved in the recovery of the first stolen The Scream, revealed some interesting details about the recovery of the second stolen The Scream. He stated that a criminal already serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery was able to trade information leading to the recovery of the artworks in exchange for a better life in prison and perhaps the M&M reward.
The Thieves:
1994 theft: “Gang stuff”
The thieves were identified and were part of a 4-man-gang led by Pål Enger, who was sentenced to 6 years and three months in prison. This wasn’t Pål Enger’s first art heist as he had spent 4 years in jail for stealing another one of Munch’s work, “The Vampire”. The three other thieves were, unfortunately, let off free because of a conviction overturned technicality issue: the undercover detectives had entered Norway using false identities, which was a violation of Norwegian law.
That’s sketchy, isn’t it?
2004 theft: “A mystery at first”
On April 8th, 2005, a suspect was arrested in connection with the theft. However, Norweigian police indicated that they had not yet recovered the paintings and a theory was sparked that the original paintings had been burned to get rid of the evidence; that was later proven wrong. More arrests followed and eventually six men faced charges related to the theft of the paintings, which still had not been located by authorities. The suspects were being sentenced and charged. Bjørn Hoen was sentenced to 7 years for planning the heist, Petter Tharaldsen was sentenced to 8 years for driving the get-away car, Petter Rosenvinge was sentenced to 4 years for supplying the car. Furthermore, Hoen and Tharaldsen were ordered to pay the astronomical sum of 750 million kroner each to the Oslo government.
The Conclusion:
Overall, a highly dangerous criminal serving a 20-year sentence stole a $100,000,000 art piece for a better prison life and some candy in return.
The Scream is a very popular painting now, but like the Mona Lisa, (which we covered last time) we often forget that it has been the victim of not one, but two thefts, both 10 years apart. That’s our exclusive two-in-one article!
