Art thieves must love Edvard Munch. In yet another theft of his works, Historien, a lithograph by Munch has been stolen. A man smashed the window of the Nyborg Kunst gallery in Oslo late Thursday and stole the work. Police are speculating that this may have been a theft by order, as the thief’s vehicle had been reported stolen 10 days earlier, and this unique work will be impossible to sell on the open market. AFP reminds us of some of the recent Munch thefts:
In 2004, two armed masked men burst into the Munch museum in Oslo in broad daylight and stole the “Scream” and the “Madonna” paintings before making off in a getaway car.
Ten years earlier, another version of the “Scream” was stolen from Oslo’s national gallery on the same day as the opening of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.
AFP: Munch artwork stolen from Oslo gallery, November 13, 2009.
