Alongside the Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch’s Scream is one of the most famous paintings of all time to be spirited away. But unlike da Vinci’s enigmatic lady, Munch’s portrait of psychological anguish was stolen not just once — but twice.
February 12, 1994, was the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Unbeknownst to the crowds that were attending, something much more monumental had already unfolded that morning a couple of hours drive to the south, in the nation’s capital of Oslo. Two men had stolen Edvard Munch’s infamous painting, The Scream, from the National Gallery. For part of the Olympic festivities, the 1893 portrait of a panic attack had been moved from where it usually hung, down to a gallery on the second floor. The thieves had scaled a ladder, fell, then climbed back up, before breaking a window and swiftly retrieving the painting. They left a note before they made their departure, which read:
“Thanks for the poor security.”
The following month, a ransom of one million US dollars was demanded, but the National Gallery refused to pay. Instead, the Norwegian authorities set up a joint sting operation with Britain’s SO10 (the Metropolitan Police's Covert Operations Group) and Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum.
“I suppose you could say it was Norwegian organized crime – two men and a ladder.”
Charles Hill was one of the British detectives responsible for the retrieval of The Scream. He had posed as an American art dealer buying for the Getty Museum in order to trick the thieves into handing over the painting. Hill’s “minder” was “an English gangster in Amsterdam,” whose job was to follow the chain of undesirables until it led them to the thieves themselves. The set-up worked, and Hill met with the men responsible for the brazen theft. Continue reading from Mutual Art
The Mysterious Motives Behind the Theft of ‘The Scream’ (Smithsonian Magazine)
Stealing The Scream: 1994 Theft (Future Learn)
Culture Re-View: Edvard Munch 'The Scream' is Stolen in Broad Daylight (Euro News)
Stolen Munch Paintings Recovered (The Guardian)
The Scream: I Found the Stolen Painting (BBC News)
Detective Who Found Munch’s Scream Dies at 73 (The Irish Times)
How a Mafia-Loving Pro Soccer Player Stole ‘The Scream’ in 1994 (ARTnews)
