Munch Museum Madonna Art Theft 2004: Arrests in 2005, Sentences in 2006

Summary: The Munch Museum Madonna art theft Aug. 31, 2004, has alleged suspects by October 2005, court rulings in May 2006 and two paintings back in August 2006.

Oslo's Munch Museum displays "Madonna" (second from right), safely recovered in 2006, during "Emma & Edvard -- Love in the Time of Loneliness" exhibit, Jan. 28-April 17, 2017; Munch's Madonna on Slow Art Day, April 8, 2017: Munch Museet (themunchmuseum) via Instagram April 8, 2017

Good old-fashioned police work of analyzing evidence and leads accounts for the status of closed case Aug. 31, 2006, to the Munch Museum Madonna art theft Aug. 22, 2004, in Oslo, Norway.

Investigations bring about an arrest just over seven months after the armed intervention, a reward offer of two million kroner ($294,000) and sentencing of three suspects. They continue alongside the airport-style security system deployed during the museum's closing from Sept. 6, 2004, until June 18, 2005, two months after the first arrest. They draw the oil on canvas and the tempera on cardboard versions of Edvard Munch's (Dec. 12, 1863-Jan. 23, 1944) two most famous artworks back home.

Museum security and police protocols ensure the safe success of the exhibited artworks Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, 2006, and May 22 to Sept. 26, 2008.

Police vans and journalists still outside Oslo's Munch Museum two hours after 2004 art theft of "Madonna" and "The Scream": Torstein Frogner, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Oslo Police Detective Chief Inspector Kjell Pedersen's finding that "We're following all possible leads" even though "we don't know who did this" fuels the worst fears.

Leads give a perpetrator "grabbing" Madonna "off the wall" and "banging it against the wall and against the ground because the gray strings weren't breaking off." They have two black-clothed, black-hooded, black-masked perpetrators dropping Madonna and The Scream twice before shoving them into a black Audi A6 and smashing their gilded frames. Destruction of suspected tracking devices impels the frames' strewn wreckage all over the street near tennis courts about one mile (1.61 kilometer) from the Munch Museum.

Munch Museum Madonna art theft leads juggle evidence from the Audi fire-gutted with thick, white foam jeopardizing viable deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and fingerprints near fanned-out frames.

Munch Museum 2004 art thieves absconded with "Madonna" as well as Edvard Munch's most famous artwork, "The Scream": Google Art Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Brutality in the museum, in the Audi and on the street kindle Madonna's and The Scream's rumored destruction as too well-known for the black market's clientele.

An incident Sept. 24, 2004, just north of Oslo, leads to rumors that label Munch's Madonna as more damaged than The Scream and as subsequently destroyed. Professional drag racer Thomas Nataas mentions Madonna and The Scream as maintained, without his permission, in a white garbage bag inside his bus for 30-plus days. He notes the damaged Madonna as necessitating restoration because of a coin-sized, one-inch (2.5-centimeter) hole in one corner and the undamaged Scream as needing no repairs.

Assistant Police Chief Iver Stensrud offers no information about Madonna's and The Scream's whereabouts after obtaining an interview with Sverre Næss's unnamed client Dec. 22, 2004.

The trial of suspects in the Munch Museum 2004 "Madonna" art theft took place in Oslo District Court (Oslo tingrett), which is housed in the Oslo Courthouse (Oslo tinghus); exterior view of Oslo Courthouse, Feb. 10, 2008: Mahlum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The following year presents progress by pinpointing potential perpetrators and by publicizing arrests by April, and charges by December, 2005 prefatory to trial Feb. 14, 2006.

Rulings May 2, 2006, by the three-judge panel under Judge Arne Lyng qualify Morten Hugo Johansen, Thomas Nataas and Stian Skjold as acquitted of criminal charges. They require 50-50 responsibility by Bjorn Hoen and Petter Tharaldsen in repaying the City of Oslo the masterpieces' 750 million kroner ($121 million, £66.3 million) value. They sentence Bjorn Hoen, Petter Rosenvinge and Petter Tharaldsen, as respectively alleged ideator, vehicle supplier and vehicle driver, to respective seven-, four- and eight-year prison terms.

The Munch Museum Madonna art theft, like the Van Gogh Museum art theft Dec. 7, 2002, turns up suspected perpetrators, not stolen artworks, within one year.

Professional drag racer Thomas Nataas testified that Munch's "Madonna" and "Scream" were kept, without his permission, inside his bus for 30-plus days: Thomas Nataas (thomasnataas) via Instagram Feb. 11, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Oslo's Munch Museum displays "Madonna" (second from right), safely recovered in 2006, during "Emma & Edvard -- Love in the Time of Loneliness" exhibit, Jan. 28-April 17, 2017; Munch's Madonna on Slow Art Day, April 8, 2017: Munch Museet themunchmuseum, via Instagram April 8, 2017, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BSngtkzggGm/?taken-by=themunchmuseum

Police vans and journalists still outside Oslo's Munch Museum two hours after 2004 art theft of "Madonna" and "The Scream": Torstein Frogner, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munchmuseetran2.jpg

Munch Museum 2004 art thieves absconded with "Madonna" as well as Edvard Munch's most famous artwork, "The Scream": Google Art Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edvard_Munch_-_The_Scream_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

The trial of suspects in the Munch Museum 2004 "Madonna" art theft took place in Oslo District Court (Oslo tingrett), which is housed in the Oslo Courthouse (Oslo tinghus); exterior view of Oslo Courthouse, Feb. 10, 2008: Mahlum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oslo_tinghus.jpg

Professional drag racer Thomas Nataas testified that Munch's "Madonna" and "Scream" were kept, without his permission, inside his bus for 30-plus days: Thomas Nataas (thomasnataas) via Instagram Feb. 11, 2017, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BQYX7ruhOzH/?taken-by=thomasnataas

For further information:

Gibbs, Walter. 3 May 2006. "3 Convicted, 3 Acquitted in Theft of Munch's Art." The New York Times > Art & Design.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/arts/design/03scre.html

Goldiner, Dave. 22 August 2006. "'The Scream' and 'Madonna' Paintings Were Stolen at Gunpoint from the Munch Museum in 2004." New York Daily News
Available @ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/oslo-scream-team-pulls-museum-heist-article-1.597151

Hollington, Kris. 13 June 2005. "Master Plan." The Guardian > U.S. Edition > Arts > Art & Design > Art.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/jun/13/art.arttheft

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 August 2017. "Munch Museum Madonna Art Theft: FBI Crime Solved Within Two Years." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/08/munch-museum-madonna-art-theft-fbi-art.html