In news that should please painting-fanciers everywhere, the Norwegian police report that they have recovered the versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream and Madonna that were stolen from the Munch Museum two years ago. When the original theft took place, I had not yet launched the "Art and Risk" category on this weblog, so I wrote about it here.
The paintings, you may recall, were not insured. Given the violence involved in the theft -- the frames were recovered promptly, in the getaway car, but the paintings themselves had been forcibly removed -- there had been ongoing worry that the works might be irretrievably damaged, even if they were ultimately found. The head of the investigation, Iver Stensrud, has not described the paintings' condition in detail, but declares that he has seen them himself "and there was far from the damage that could have been feared." The AP report adds:
During the hunt for the paintings, Norwegian news media reported that they might have been burned to get rid of evidence.
Stensrud said it was not possible for the news media, or the public, to see the paintings yet. He also refused to discuss the methods or details of the search that led to the stolen artworks.
[A longer version of this post appears on my more personal weblog, "a fool in the forest."]
Comments