Munch Museum Scream Art Theft: FBI Art Crime Solved Within Two Years

Summary: The Munch Museum Scream art theft Aug. 22, 2004, proves that perpetrators can be pinpointed and that trials can proceed to sentencing within two years.

"The Scream," Edvard Munch's most famous artwork, was indelicately removed during Oslo's Munch Museum 2004 art theft, but was fortunately recovered in 2006: Google Art Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Munch Museum Scream art theft Aug. 22, 2004, in Oslo, Norway, absented two acclaimed artworks from public access, allowed by their artist, in an armed intervention that anticipated additional art-unfriendly antagonism.

The burglary began with two black-clothed, black-hooded, black-masked perpetrators betting wrong on the opening and shutting timing sequence and bumping into the museum's sliding entry doors. It continued with careening through the café and corridors, charging into 50 to 80 visitors convinced of terrorist conspiracies, communicating in Norwegian and controlling unarmed guards. Security camera footage displayed drastic images of The Scream "badly damaged in the process" of perpetrators "ripping the wooden frames off to remove electronic tracking devices."

The 10-minute extrication exiled Madonna and The Scream, each one of four versions by Edvard Munch (Dec. 12, 1863-Jan. 23, 1944), to existences on the run.

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

Gray cords furnished flimsy attachments of paintings to museum walls even though they functioned as silent alarm systems to the local station of the Oslo police. They got police officers to the museum 15, not 5, minutes after the getaway at 11:20 a.m. Central European Summer Time (9:20 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time).

Ingelin Killengreen, Police Commissioner in the National Police Directorate, had station officers, including Grønland's, helping to solve the explosion and robbery in Stavanger April 5, 2004.

Under 90 minutes after two patrol cars inched up outside the crime scene police officers identified wrecked frames without their paintings one mile (1.61 kilometer) away.

Fire extinguisher foam jeopardized sustainable deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and fingerprints in the abandoned, fire-gutted black Audi A6 estate car for the Munch Museum Scream art theft.

Ingelin Killengreen, Norwegian Police Commissioner during the 2004 theft and 2006 recovery of the Munch Museum's "Scream": Justis- og beredskapsdepartement, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Iver Stensrud, Oslo Police Inspector, knew The Scream's whereabouts between the getaway and the 24- by 36-inch (60.96- by 91.44-centimeter) painting's hideaway until Sept. 24, 2004.

Madonna and The Scream languished in a bag or blanket under a mattress or a seat in a bus linked with Thomas Nataas, professional drag racer. The second-generation drag racer mentioned a coin-sized, 1-inch (2.5-centimeter) hole mangling one corner of the Munch Madonna but no damage marring The Scream's back or front.

Stian Skjold, one of the two alleged perpetrators, noted nothing about the paintings nestled within a garbage bag for their second hideaway in a car trunk. Police officers on another case observed the Munch Museum art theft casualties' transfer from the bus to one car and to another at a petrol station.

"Madonna" and "The Scream" apparently were stowed in a bus linked with second-generation professional drag racer Thomas Nataas: Thomas Nataas (thomasnataas) via Instagram Feb. 11, 2017

Pursuing paintings and perpetrators produced arrests and charges for the first trial Feb. 14, 2006, and convictions and sentences for the first ruling May 2, 2006.

The allegedly guilty trio qualified for an appeals trial Feb. 20, 2007, under High Court Presiding Judge Dag Stousland and a second ruling April 23, 2007. The appeals trial resulted in a reversal of Stian Skjold's status from acquitted of criminal charges to sentenced as a perpetrator to a five-and-one-half-year prison term. It shifted repayment of 1.57 million kroner (£131,000) as shared responsibilities of Skjold with Bjørn Hoen and Petter Tharaldsen, respectively sentenced to nine- and nine-and-one-half-year terms.

Nobody took up state prosecutor Terje Nyboe's offer of canceled repayment schedules and lighter prison sentences for turning up the Munch Museum Scream art theft casualties.

An appeals trial in 2007 for the trio deemed guilty by Oslo tingrett (Oslo District Court) results in a reversal and stiffer sentences; Borgarting lagmannsrett (Borgarting Court of Appeals), Oslo, 2010: Anne-Sophie Ofrim, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"The Scream," Edvard Munch's most famous artwork, was indelicately removed during Oslo's Munch Museum 2004 art theft, but was fortunately recovered in 2006: Google Art Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edvard_Munch_-_The_Scream_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Police vans outside Munch Museum approximately two hours after Munch Museum 2004 art theft of "Madonna" and "The Scream": Torstein Frogner, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Munchmuseetran1.jpg

Ingelin Killengreen, Norwegian Police Commissioner during the 2004 theft and 2006 recovery of the Munch Museum's "Scream": Justis- og beredskapsdepartement, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingelin_Killengreen_(cropped).jpg

"Madonna" and "The Scream" apparently were stowed in a bus linked with second-generation professional drag racer Thomas Nataas: Thomas Nataas (thomasnataas) via Instagram Feb. 11, 2017, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BQYX7ruhOzH/?taken-by=thomasnataas

An appeals trial in 2007 for the trio deemed guilty by Oslo tingrett (Oslo District Court) results in a reversal and stiffer sentences; Borgarting lagmannsrett (Borgarting Court of Appeals), Oslo, 2010: Anne-Sophie Ofrim, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Borgarting_Lagmannsrett_den_gamle_bygningen.JPG

For further information:

"Armed Robbers Steal 'The Scream.'" Cable News Network > World > 23 August 2004.
Available @ http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/22/scream.theft/88282.stm

Fouché, Gwladys. 23 April 2007. "Three Sentenced in Munch Theft Trial." The Guardian > US Edition > Arts > Art & Design > Art Theft.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4964872.stm

Fouché, Gwladys; Bowcott, Owen; and Henley, Jon. 23 August 2004. "A Blur of Balaclavas - and The Scream Was Gone Again." The Guardian > World > World News.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/23/artsandhumanities.education

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

Holguin, Jaime. 31 August 2006. "Stolen Masterpiece 'Scream' Recovered." CBSNews > News.
Available @ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stolen-masterpiece-scream-recovered/

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

Jones, Jonathan. 16 February 2007. "The Bigger Picture." The Guardian > US Edition > Arts > Art & Design > Art > Jones on Art.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/feb/17/art.arttheft

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 August 2017. "Munch Museum Madonna Art Theft 2004: Arrests in 2005, Sentences in 2006." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/08/munch-museum-madonna-art-theft-2004.html

Mellgren, Doug. 1 September 2006. "Police Recover Stolen 'Scream.'" Deseret News.
Available @ http://www.deseretnews.com/article/645197872/Police-recover-stolen-Scream-painting.html

Montgomery, David. 23 August 2004. "Munch's 'Scream' Stolen in Brazen Raid." The Washington Post > Politics.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/08/23/munchs-scream-stolen-in-brazen-raid/fdb36e0d-b1ff-4b67-9519-9c273059343a/?utm_term=.b0cf66b2395a

"Police Question 'Scream' Suspect." ABC News > News > 24 December 2004.
Available @ http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2004-12-24/police-question-scream-suspect/607808?pfm=sm

"Scream Stolen from Norway Museum." BBC News > Europe > 22 August 2004.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/35

"The Scream Theft Trial Adjourned." BBC News > Entertainment > 14 February 2006.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4711496.stm

"Six Charged with The Scream Theft." BBC News > Entertainment > 19 December 2005.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4543272.stm

"Three Guilty of The Scream Theft." BBC News > Entertainment > 2 May 2006.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4964872.stm