The Rescue Artist (24 page)
Authors: Edward Dolnick
Tags: #Art thefts, #Fiction, #Art, #Murder, #Art thefts - Investigation - Norway, #Norway, #Modern, #Munch, #General, #True Crime, #History, #Contemporary (1945-), #Organized Crime, #Investigation, #Edvard, #Art thefts - Investigation, #Law, #Theft from museums, #Individual Artists, #Theft from museums - Norway
Edvard Munch,
Self-Portrait with
Cigarette
, 1895
oil on canvas, 85.5 × 110.5 cm
PHOTO:
J. Lathion: © National Gallery. Norway/ARS
Edvard Munch,
Spring Evening on Karl Johan Street
, 1892 oil on canvas, 121 × 84.5 cm
© Courtesy of the Bergen Art Museum /ARS
Munch painted this melancholy street scene,
Spring Evening on Karl Johan Street
, in 1892, a year before
The Scream
. The skull-like heads and staring eyes would reappear in
The Scream
.
The Scream
has served as the basis for countless spoofs and cartoons. Munch, a tormented and melancholy man, had hoped that audiences would “understand the holiness” of his images.
Munch may have seen this Incan mummy at the Palais du Trocadéro (now the Musée de l’Homme) in Paris. Some art historians believe it helped inspire
The Scream’s
central figure.
Pål Enger was an ex-soccer star turned crook and a publicity hound. Enger, who had been convicted in 1988 for stealing Munch’s
Vampire
, was a natural suspect when
The Scream
vanished. He had an alibi, though, and enjoyed teasing the police. Here he poses next to the spot where
The Scream
had hung; in the place of the $72-million masterpiece is a poster from the museum’s gift shop, hanging above a label reading “Stolen.”
The National Gallery, in Oslo.
The Scream
had been moved from its customary location in the museum to the second floor, so that it would be more convenient for tourists. Not only was the painting moved closer to ground level, but it was hung in a room with easy access from the street and within a few feet of a window. This photo was snapped moments after
The Scream
vanished. Note the billowing curtains, as the wind blows through the broken window, and the police tape.
The Scream
was stolen on the opening day of the Winter Olympics in 1994. With the world’s attention focused on Norway, the
Scream
thieves stole the international spotlight as well as a $72-million painting.
An art dealer named Einar-Tore Ulving found himself mixed up in
The Scream
case when an ex-convict client told him he had underworld contacts who could arrange for the return of Munch’s masterpiece.
The first break in the case —following a tip from an anonymous caller, authorities found a piece of
The Scream’s
ornate frame. The National Gallery’s ID numbers proved that the frame was the real thing.
Leif Lier, the Norwegian detective in charge of
The Scream
case.
John Butler headed up the three-man team that Scotland Yard sent to Norway to find
The Scream
.
Charley Hill’s business card, for his role as wheeler-dealer Chris Roberts, “The Man from the Getty.”