The Scream by Edvard Munch is the ultimate symbol of modern man's existential angst when confronted with the uncontainable power of nature. Either that or it's that picture of the scary lightbulb man, one or the other.
Two years ago, The Scream by Edvard Munch was stolen from The Munch Museum in Oslo along with Madonna, Edvard Munch's representation of an old lady wearing clothes and making music that are slightly two inappropriately young for her. But now Oslo police have recovered both The Scream and Madonna by Edvard Munch following a successful operation. Sadly, though, neither masterpieces will be returned to the Munch Museum, as the artworks have been permanently replaced by one poster of Slipknot and another or two young lesbians looking as if they're about to touch each other up a bit.
Back in 2004, the theft of The Scream and Madonna by Edvard Munch shook the art world like nothing before. Masked gunmen strolled into the Munch Museum in Oslo in broad daylight and just made off with them. The loss that was felt following the theft was huge; not only was The Scream heralded as one of the seminal expressionist paintings created in the last decade of the 19th century, but it also proved to be the inspiration for the shout thing that Macaulay Culkin did during Home Alone and the start of mostly forgotten 1993 BBC comedy show Newman And Baddiel In Pieces.
Even though Edvard Munch pretty much just bashed out different versions of The Scream any time he felt like it, this was the first crime to happen in Norway in over 150 years, so Oslo police were happy to launch a full investigation into the theft, stumping up almost $300,000 as a reward for anyone with information. And it worked – The Scream and Madonna have been recovered, and in better shape than expected, too, according to head of investigation Iver Stensrud:
"The pictures came into our hands this afternoon after a successful police action. All that remains is an expert examination to confirm with 100 percent certainty, that these are the original paintings. We believe these are the originals. I saw the paintings myself today, and there was far from the damage that could have been feared."
However, Stensrud should have been a bit more patient and waited for the examination results before declaring to the world that The Scream had been recovered, as several art experts have come forward to suggest that maybe the original version of The Scream wasn't created with some magic markers and one blue wax crayon on the back of a shoebox.
Read more:
Two Stolen Edvard Munch Works Recovered – ABC
[story by Stuart Heritage]