Munch Works To Be Shown, Then Restored
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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.
