'The Scream' stolen from Museum

Krug · Aug 22, 2004

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/22/scream.theft.ap/index.html

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Armed men stormed into an art museum Sunday, threatened staff at gunpoint and stole Edvard Munch's famous paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" before the eyes of stunned museum-goers.

The thieves yanked the paintings off the walls of Oslo's Munch museum and loaded them into a waiting car outside, said a witness, French radio producer Francois Castang.

Police spokeswoman Hilde Walsoe said the two or three armed men threatened a museum employee with a handgun to give them the two paintings, including "The Scream" -- Munch's famed depiction of an anguished figure with its head in its hands.

Wombat · Aug 22, 2004

This makes me incredibly angry!

I cannot believe such selfishness, crassness, and plain vile behaviour!

If the perpatrator is caught, I think he should be hung by his ankles and kicked by a collective of artists, with special spikey boots just for the occasion.

grrrrr!

Angcuru · Aug 23, 2004

They'll be caught sooner or later. And when they do, it's Armed Robbery and/or Grand Larceny, depending on who did what in which part of the plot. Which means a long span of jail time. And lots of bleeding too.

Umbran · Aug 23, 2004

Okay, now I have to wonder...

I have seen this news item show up all over the place. But stuff gets stolen every day. Compared with all the more serious crime in the world, why do so many people care about some inanimate paintings going missing?

DonaldRumsfeldsTofu · Aug 23, 2004

I have nothing at all against the act of theft, many times it is just.

But art theft is one of the most elitist, insensitive, selfish, bourgeois crimes one can commit, and deserves my contempt. Art should be in a museum for all to see.

Munch is one of my favourite artists, and that’s easily arguably his magnum opus. I am severely pissed off.

Krug · Aug 23, 2004

Umbran said:
Okay, now I have to wonder...

I have seen this news item show up all over the place. But stuff gets stolen every day. Compared with all the more serious crime in the world, why do so many people care about some inanimate paintings going missing?

Well these are prized iconic artworks and they cannot be shared with the world anymore. That's all kinda sad.

Crothian · Aug 23, 2004

Plus isn't crime, especially at gun point, sorta really rare in Norway??

Chaos Drake · Aug 23, 2004

Umbran said:
Okay, now I have to wonder...

I have seen this news item show up all over the place. But stuff gets stolen every day. Compared with all the more serious crime in the world, why do so many people care about some inanimate paintings going missing?

Well the sheer audacity of it. It would be a sadder world if all artwork were destroyed or stolen, just for the sake of a few selfish individuals.

Uzumaki · Aug 23, 2004

You know what's even sadder? The same painting was stolen a decade ago. Luckily, the museum got it back unharmed, but there was no move to put in an alarm or offer some protection for the painting. So stupid.

Bloodstone Press · Aug 23, 2004

I'm nearly as stunned as the onlookers.

What do the thieves think they are going to do with it? I don't know if I'm more surprised by the audacity or the stupidity.