Munch Works To Be Shown, Then Restored
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OSLO, Norway — Recovered masterpieces “The Scream” and “Madonna” by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch will be put on public display before time-consuming repairs to theft damage begin, museum officials said yesterday.
Police recovered the paintings — considered priceless — on August 31, just over two years after they were stolen by masked gunmen in a brazen daylight heist at the Oslo city-owned Munch Museum.
Both paintings were damaged as a result of the theft and require painstaking and time-consuming restoration. Art lovers have been eager to see the paintings before that process begins.
A photograph released by the museum yesterday shows clearly two less than 1-inch rips in the canvas of “Madonna.” The damage reported by the museum to one corner of “The Scream” is less visible.
“The Scream,” in Munch’s emotionally charged style, was a major influence in the birth of the Expressionist movement and has become a modern icon of human anxiety. In the four versions of the painting, a waif-like figure is depicted apparently screaming or hearing a scream.