Something to Scream About

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Thieves collect more Munch works


Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 9:19 AM EST (1419 GMT)
Detail from "Blue Dress," one of the three stolen art works.


OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- Thieves stole three works by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch from a hotel in south Norway overnight, adding to a list of his missing art including "The Scream," police said.

Thieves took a 1915 watercolor, "Blue Dress," and two lithographs -- a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg.

"We have mounted an investigation," police spokesman Paul Horne told Reuters after the discovery of the theft from the Refsnes Gods hotel near the town of Moss late on Sunday night. He said police were seeking witnesses.

"The biggest loss is 'Blue Dress'," hotel owner Vidar Salbuvik told Reuters. He declined to estimate how much it was worth. The works were among 400 in a collection kept by the hotel.

On August 22, gunmen stole a version of Munch's most famous masterpiece, "The Scream," showing a terrified waif-like figure beneath a blood-red sky, from Oslo's Munch Museum in front of dozens of tourists.

On the same day thieves snatched another Munch masterpiece, "Madonna," from the same museum. That theft is unsolved.

"The Scream" has become a symbol of angst in a world scarred by horrors including the Holocaust, the atom bomb and terrorism. Munch painted four versions of his most famous work -- another was stolen for several months in 1994.

Munch lived from 1863 to 1944 and many of his works, like "The Scream" and "Madonna," are too well known for thieves to sell them to reputable dealers.

The head of the Munch Museum, Gunnar Soerensen, said that Munch produced about 1,700 paintings during his lifetime and perhaps 30,000 graphic works.

Of "Blue Dress," he told Norway's NTB news agency: "This is a good aquarelle clearly in Munch's style, but this is not 'Madonna' or 'The Scream' in terms of value."