HISTORY is repeating itself for Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The audacious theft of his 1890s masterpiece from a museum in Oslo yesterday recalled a spectacular raid on another Oslo gallery ten years ago when thieves made off with another version of the same painting.
The Scream was first stolen from the Oslo National Museum in February 1994 on the eve of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, when the eyes of the world — and the country’s police force — were focused on another part of Norway.
Two brazen thieves climbed a ladder, broke a window and made off with the painting in 50seconds. They left several mementos at the scene of the crime, including a pair of wirecutters and a handwritten note that read: “Thanks for the great security.”
Ten years ago, the loss of such an important painting was regarded as a national disgrace in Norway. The Norwegian investigation was assisted by Scotland Yard in the shape of Detective Chief Inspectors John Butler and Charles Hill and a third officer known as Sid Walker.
Early suspicions were directed at Norway’s anti-abortion campaigners, who had threatened to pull a publicity stunt. Another key suspect was Paul Enger, an art thief and former professional footballer.
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In an undercover operation, Mr Hill posed as a fast-talking art expert and representative of the J Paul Getty Museum in California. He was able to establish contact with the criminals by offering £500,000 for the safe handover of the Munch.
In Oslo an art dealer had offered to act as a go-between with the criminals. Mr Hill arranged to meet him and his associate, Jan Olsen, who died of a drugs overdose four years ago in the Plaza Hotel, Oslo. Arriving at the Plaza, the detective was horrified to discover that the hotel was full of police officers, attending an annual convention staged by the Scandinavian Narcotics Officers Association. He knew two of the officers but, through London, was able to warn them not to acknowledge him.
Mr Olsen told Mr Hill that he wanted £300,000, as well as £15,000 expenses, or the painting would be destroyed — “eaten, shat out and sent to the Minister of Culture”, the criminals said.
Months later, Mr Hill was driven to the village of Aasgaardstrand, where Munch had his summer house. The Scream was brought up from the cellar of a chalet and the gang members were arrested. Under Norwegian law, however, the convictions were invalid because of the false identities adopted by the British officers, and the criminals were all let off.
Mr Hill said yesterday: “The Norwegian court decided covert operations were not for them. The Norwegians let them all off in the end.” Mr Hill suspects that members of the same gang might have been involved with yesterday’s theft.
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“This is trophy crime,” he said. “The most likely groups to have taken it are the fellows that stole the original ten years ago, or some offshoot, having another go. In North America, it’s called ‘showing them the finger’. If it’s not that lot, it could easily be Balkan bandits.”
Even in the underworld, some pictures are too hot to handle. Whether the thieves are planning to hold it to ransom remains to be seen but, in 1994, the Norwegian Government and museum were reported to have refused a £690,000 ransom demand.
Julian Radcliffe, the director of the Art Loss Register, which has 150,000 stolen works on its database, said: “Even in the underworld, some pictures, like this one, would be much less valuable than a lesser-known work. Because it was stolen before and then recovered, I wouldn’t have thought this had a straightforward criminal purpose. Perhaps there is some political, or other, overtone.”
The Scream cannot compete with Dulwich Picture Gallery’s Rembrandt, which has long held the record as most stolen painting. Having been taken — and recovered — four times, the portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III is called the “takeaway Rembrandt”.
SCREAM IN THE DARK
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EDVARD MUNCH (1863- 1944) painted four versions of The Scream. The Munch Museum in Oslo held the one stolen yesterday and another in its storerooms. A private collector owns a third, while the fourth and best-known one hangs in the Oslo National Gallery, from where it was stolen in 1994.
They belong to a series of pictures called The Frieze of Life, which he produced in the 1890s and described as “a poem of life, love and death”. The Scream has become his most famous work and is said to be the world’s most reproduced painting.
It is a representation of fear, angst, oppression and paranoia. Munch said: “I was crossing a bridge by a fjord under the sunset and I sensed a scream passing through nature. I seemed to hear the scream. I painted the clouds as actual blood.”