Munch’s ‘The Scream,’ ‘Madonna’ Recovered After 2 Years

Norwegian law enforcement on Thursday recovered Edvard Munch’s two masterpieces, “The Scream” and “Madonna,” that were stolen on Aug. 24, 2004, by masked bandits during a daring daylight heist at Oslo’s Munch Museum, the Associated Press reports via Forbes.com.

Munch Museum representatives confirmed the authenticity of the recovered works of art, though they have not yet been publicly unveiled, according to the AP.

Two or three masked men entered the museum in August 2004 brandishing a handgun and yanked the painting off the wall in front of stunned visitors, the AP reports.

Three men were charged earlier this year for their roles in the incident, and at the time, prosecutors suggested that the heist may have been set up to distract law enforcement from their probe of an earlier bank robbery that left one officer dead and pulled in roughly $9 million, according to the AP.

Iver Stensrud, the inspector in charge of the Munch heist investigation, said police believe the paintings never left Norway, though he has remained mum on the specifics of how the art was found, the AP reports. Stensrud did note that none of the $294,000 reward offered for the painting’s return was paid out, and that the three men arrested earlier this year had nothing to do with the recovery, according to the AP.

No additional arrests were announced, the AP reports.

There are four separate versions of “The Scream,” and the Munch Museum heist is the second time one of them was stolen, according to the AP. A theft from Oslo’s National Gallery in 1994 included one of the paintings, but it was also later recovered, the AP reports.

Related Link:

• Museum Heist

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-Compiled by Al Sacco