I am still working on getting the photograph of the bison in Norway--the trademark of the Norway ping list--to a reasonable size, so for the moment the above photograph will have to do.
Posted on 03/06/2005 10:28:01 PM PST by franksolich
Three Munch works stolen from hotel
OSLO (Reuters) - Thieves have stolen three works by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch from a hotel in south Norway overnight, adding to a list of missing paintings including "The Scream", police say.
"Three Munch paintings were stolen," police spokesman Paul Horne told Reuters on Monday after the discovery of the theft from the Refsnes Gods hotel near the town of Moss late on Sunday night. He declined to identify the works, saying that police would publish more details later in the day.
On August 22, gunmen stole a version of Munch's most famous masterpiece, "The Scream", showing a terrified waif-like figure beneath a blood-red sky, from Oslo's Munch Museum in front of dozens of tourists.
On the same day thieves snatched another Munch masterpiece, "Madonna", from the same museum. That theft is unsolved.
"The Scream" has become a symbol of angst in a world scarred by horrors including the Holocaust, the atom bomb and terrorism. Munch painted four versions of his most famous work -- another was stolen for several months in 1994.
Munch lived from 1863 to 1944 and many of his works, such as "The Scream" and "Madonna", are too well known for thieves to sell them to reputable dealers.
First, the wily Australians bilk tens of thousands of Norwegians wanting to get something for nothing, and then the sly Portuguese sell them tainted alcohol.....
I am appalled, truly appalled.
The past 38 days, since the beginning of the Norway ping list, I had been impressed by the wary Norwegian border guards always catching people up to no good--but alas it appears the Norwegian border guards are the only watchful eyes in all of Norway.
I am still working on getting the photograph of the bison in Norway--the trademark of the Norway ping list--to a reasonable size, so for the moment the above photograph will have to do.
I never paid much attention to "modern" artists--all good art died with Hans Holbein a long time ago--but wasn't this guy occasionally locked up in a Norwegian insane asylum?
Munch was raised by his (mentally ill) father, Christian Munch, who instilled in his children a deep-rooted fear for hell by repeatedly telling them, that if they sinned in any way, shape or form, they would be doomed for hell, without any chance of pardon.
While Munch was still young, his parents (in 1868 and 1889), a brother and Munch's favourite sister Sophie (in 1877) died. A younger sister was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age.
Edvard himself was often ill. Of the five siblings only one, Andreas, ever married, only to die a few months after the wedding. This probably explains the bleakness and pessimism of much of Munch's work.
Munch would later say: "Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life."
Reminds me of my cat...
Oh, okay, thank you.
That clarifies it.
I'll check eBay.
Are there any Munch works left that aren't stolen?
See now, the deal is, I wouldn't know a real Picasso from a fake Picasso, even.
Having me be an "art critic" is the same thing as asking legal advice from the local grocer.
But I know what I like (painters of the 15th and 16th centuries from northern Europe--Holbein, Durer, Brueghel, &c., &c., &c.--and those guys who painted the Stuarts of England during the 17th century).
One wonders how they plan to get rid of them, for money.
Some items are just "too hot"--one thinks of when the "Mona Lisa" was absent from the Louvre in Paris ninety or so years ago.
Maybe they can unload the paintings as parodies of Munch, and get away with it; some of us would not see the difference, and remain unaware we were getting the real thing.
I searched eBay for "stolen munch painting" but so far, nothing.
snip...
after examining the works the thief became so depressed that he wandered around aimlessly muttering, "It just doesn't matter. Nothing matters" before shooting himself.
snip
"We warn all of our patrons never to view Munch work for extended period of time," said the museum curator. "Our own staff wear special glasses when handling the work and then undergo mandatory two hour therapy sessions afterward."
I cannot figure this out.
Norway has the most zealous border guards in the world; these guys are always nabbing foreigners up to no good--and of course one wishes them well, in that.
But on the other hand, Norway must have local policemen and "security guards" too busy vaccuuming down the aquavit, to pay attention to things.
Just this image of Mr. Munch from Chuck E. Cheese:
When high profile art work is stolen it's usually for an insane collector. It's a contract job. I always suspected that's what the Gardener Museum theft was a couple years ago.
The Isabella Stuart Gardiner Museum in Boston was awesome, when they still had those now-absent paintings.
One suspects a great many of them end up in the hands of Russian "millionaires."
Sounds like a get them all theft.
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