afrol News, 22 August - The two masterpieces of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, \"Scream\" and \"Madonna\", were today stolen from Oslo\'s Munch Museum by three armed robbers during opening hours. The paintings are among the world\'s most expensive and may already have endured \"irreversible harm\".
According to tourists, now visiting the famous Munch Museum in great numbers, the robbery was committed by three men with hoods over their heads, one of them armed. The armed man was said to have pointed his gun against one of the museum\'s guards while the others picked the world-famous paintings from the wall.
The robbery was said to have been executed in less than one minute, while Oslo police reportedly took 15-20 minutes to reach the Munch Museum. Museum guards, as even the police, are generally not armed in Norway, thus unable to resist the armed robbers.
According to witnesses, the robbers drove away in a waiting car. Witnesses later saw the car stopping one kilometre north of the museum, where police later found two broken frames. Pablo Sáez, a painting conservator formerly working at the Munch Museum, told afrol News that if this means that the two \"very fragile\" paintings have been removed from their frames, they are \"at great risk of sustaining large damages.\"
- The photos I have seen from the site indicate that these indeed are the frames of the two Munch paintings, Mr Sáez told afrol News. The conservator, who in 2002 restored the two paintings, says that these frames are special security frames and that removing paintings automatically will \"cause irreversible harm on the two paintings.\"
Oslo police say they are now using \"all available resources, on the ground and in the air\" to locate the robbers. Norway has been ridden by a wave of armed robberies during the last years, with tens of millions of euros still being at large.
As the two Munch masterpieces are among the world\'s most famous paintings, it is believed that the robbers will find it difficult to find buyers. A 1994 robbery of another version of Munch\'s \"Scream\" from Oslo\'s National Gallery ended up in a blackmail attempt, where the robbers asked for kroner 3 million to return the painting. It was recovered in a large police action.
During the 1994 robbery, art experts valued the National Gallery\'s version of the \"Scream\" at about kroner 400 million (euro 50 million). Meanwhile, however, experts say these Munch masterpieces are \"inestimable\".
Painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) became a revolutionary in his field. The stolen paintings are considered reference works in the expressionist art style and the model for many later painters. He painted \"The Scream\" in 1893 and \"Madonna\" in 1893-94.
After his death, almost the entire artwork of Mr Much was given to the Oslo municipality, in accordance with his will. This unique collection now is the basis for the Munch Museum, which was opened in Oslo in the 1960s and has become one of the Norwegian capital\'s main tourist attractions.
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