Munch: again three paintings stolen in Norway

Munch artworks stolen from hotel
Mon Mar 7, 2005 08:03 AM ET


OSLO (Reuters) - Thieves have stolen 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 say.
Thieves took a 1915 watercolour, "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."

Someone really must like his paintings

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police have recovered three pictures by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch a day after they were stolen from a hotel, Norway's NRK public radio has said.

It said that the police had recovered a 1915 Munch watercolour, "Blue Dress", and two lithographs -- a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg.

"Several people have been arrested ... some are Norwegian and others have a foreign background," Oslo assistant police chief Iver Stensrud told NRK television after a police raid in the Oslo area on Monday night.

He said police had recovered a 1915 Munch watercolor, "Blue Dress," and two lithographs -- a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg. It was unclear if they had been damaged, Stensrud said.

He said that it was impossible to say if the thieves were linked to those who stole "The Scream," showing a terrified waif-like figure under a blood-red sky, and "Madonna" from Oslo's Munch Museum in front of dozens of tourists last August.

But he reiterated police were confident of solving that theft too.