'The Scream' stolen in broad daylight!!

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Armed robbers steal 'The Scream'
Sunday, August 22, 2004 Posted: 1240 GMT (2040 HKT)




OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- Masked robbers stormed into an art museum in Norway and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" at gunpoint before the eyes of stunned museum-goers.

Sunday's raid happened in broad daylight at the the Oslo museum named after the Norwegian artist.

"They knew exactly where the paintings were and took them down from the wall," Jorunn Christophersen, head of information for the Munch Museum, told CNN.

The thieves also stole Munch's "Madonna."

"They are our most valuable paintings," Christophersen said.

She disputed a report that the paintings were unguarded, saying an alarm sounded after they pulled the paintings off the wall.

"There is an alarm system and [the paintings] are stuck to the wall with solid screws but they have just used force in taking the Munch [paintings] away," she said.

Christopherson also said the robbers threatened the guards with guns, as they headed out to their getaway car.

Eyewitness Marketa Cajova told NTB public radio: "He was wearing a black face mask and something that looked like a gun to force a female security guard down on the floor."

Police Spokesman Kjell Moerk told radio network NRK: "We don't have all the details on the situation, but we are searching for the suspects in the air and on land."

It is the second time in 10 years that "The Scream" has been stolen.

In February 1994, the work was taken and remained missing for nearly three months.

Police ultimately recovered the work 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.

As yet there has been no ransom demand from the robbers behind Sunday's raid, Christophersen said.

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. He died in 1944 at the age of 81.

The National Art Museum owns 58 paintings by Munch