http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local ... 028548.ece

Munch masterpieces destroyed?
The Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" have been incinerated, according to newspaper Dagbladet, citing criminal sources and a top secret police report.

The paper claimed Thursday that the paintings were destroyed in order to get rid of damning evidence as the police investigation closes in on the culprits behind the robbery.

Investigation leader Iver Stensrud of the Oslo police said he had no knowledge of the supposedly secret report acknowledging the destruction of the paintings.

"This is completely unknown to Oslo police. I basically have no comment and normally we do not use Dagbladet as a reliable source here at the Oslo police," Stensrud told NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting).

Three people are in custody in connection with the Munch robbery, but none of them are linked to crime via technical evidence, and the pair that carried out the heist are considered to be at large.

Dagbladet cited both criminal and police sources in their reportage, and said that police expect new arrests in the case shortly

oh.. my.. god
i pray that this is not true.

why do people even bother stealing a famous painting anyway? why not rob a bank? they can't get anywhere near it's real value on the black market.

but once again, i really hope this isn't true because it would be such a loss.

both those paintings, and especially the first one, are absolutely amazing.

They had interest from buyers prior to the theft, so the robbers were most likely hired by some private collectors or something. It's quite sad.

Can I buy the ashes?

I saw the Edvard Munch exhibit when it came to Seattle 15 years ago ... damn.

If these paintings are really gone the thieves should incinerated as well.

Jesus, that'd suck if it were true.

In terms of "The Scream" - I believe that Munch did more that one version of it... I'm not sure how that mitigates anything, but somehow it feels less bad than if, I don't know, let's say Dali's one and only version of "Persistence of Memory" got incinerated.

The dumb things people do for money... how can you steal such a famous painting and not know that anyone worth their salt wouldn't fork out exhorbitant amounts of money for something they knew was stolen?

Maybe they burned a fake to hide the original.

Sounds like you're in on this.

Still... what good would that do? You can't sell it on, no-one who has the means to buy it would fork out that much money for something that was stolen. Not even 20 years from now.


By the way, I seem to recal reading that these painting were recovered just days after they were stolen, but were torn out of their frames?! Anyone else remember that story? Was it false?

When someone steals a traceable work of art, they already have a buyer lined up before they steal it.

Sharkey: "His name is Clousseau. Inspector, Clousseau..."



Doo-doo doo-doooooooooo....

Definitely. It'd be a shame if they were both gone.

I know it's already been said, but goddamnit if that doesn't suck.

No way ... CSI:Oslo could figure that out.

I believe Munch painted 4 versions of The Scream. If I'm not mistaken the one that has supposedly been burned is number two. There is an excellent article in Playboy from two months ago and it details the theft of the same painting in 1994, and it also has a bit of information on the recent robbery from 2004.

In '94 the guys basically put a ladder up to the window, ran in unarmed and grabbed The Madonna and The Scream off the wall. They had no sellers lined up, they were stealing it for recognition.

I can't really imagine that there is a serious black market for stolen art. I don't understand who would think they could buy a painting as recognizable as The Scream and put it on their wall without getting caught eventually.

Also, something interesting to think about...The painting is titled the scream, and most assume that the central figure is screaming. But, you can also look at it like he is covering his ears from some godawful sound.

Did that one have a really cool title page? If I remember right, there was some code hidden in the title or something.

It was also stolen on the opening day1994 Winter Olympics at 6:30 AM, so there was nobody on the streets.



They've dragged the guy who stole it then(Pål Enger) into the investigation now. He was sighted at the Munch-museum a few days prior to the theft. The museum opens again on June 8th.

Has this become some sort of strange Norwegian sport or something? Like stealing the other team's mascot before the big game?