The Scream 1893
Oil, tempera & pastel on cardboard
91 x 73.5 cm
The National Gallery, Oslo
As you may recall, The Scream, by Edvard Munch was recently stolen (Sunday August 22nd, 2004). Along with Madonna, it was burgled from The Munch Museum (Munch Museet) in Oslo, Norway. Many news outlets picked up the story as an odd human interest feature, and left it as a one-time curiosity. Most reports were inaccurate about which Scream was actually taken. Munch created several versions of the image. The original incarnation is housed in the National Gallery (Nasjonalgalleriet, Norway) also in Oslo.
Friday, October 22, 2004
The SCREAM Report
In 1994, the first Scream (1893, oil, tempera & pastel on cardboard) was stolen from its home in Norway's National Gallery. It was the opening day of the Olympics in Lillehammer. Thieves broke in at night by climbing up a ladder and in a window before snatching it off the wall. The painting was not secured in any substantial way and not connected to an alarm system. A psychic was called in and had a vision of pieces of wood tangled in wire in a body of water. Authorities found the remnants of the painting's frame and "security device" on the edge of a pond, just as the psychic had divined. The painting was eventually recovered three months later when the crooks were unable to secure a ransom for it. Could they be at it again?
Unfortunately, many news reports failed to make the distinction between the two versions of The Scream, if they even realized there was more than one. Some even reproduced the wrong one, including a notable British news organization. Gasp! Scandal! I know... Perhaps it is crass, but I am glad that the iconic famous one is not the one stolen two months ago.
There are four versions of The Scream. According to Ulrich Bischoff, in his monograph on Munch, fifty versions exist. He can only be including the various lithographs and prints which exist of this image in addition to the four paintings.
Again, inaccuracies riddle this story. A definitive breakdown of the numbers and natures of the works was found at The Munch Museum's website (www.munch.museum.no). There are two paintings, the National Gallery owns the afore-mentioned one, The Munch Museum owns the other. There are also two pastels, The Munch Museum owns one and the other is in a private collection. It is The Munch Museum's painting of The Scream which was most recently stolen. Both the paintings are executed on cardboard, with a sketched version on the reverse of the one in the National gallery. The Munch Museum also has a sheet of paper with several sketches relating to The Scream doodled on it.
The Scream
1893
Tempera on cardboard
83.5 x 66 cm
The Munch Museum (rightful owners)
It's a cold comfort, but at least the other one is still out there. Could the recently stolen Scream now be in private hands as well? There is no way the art thieves could sell or auction the piece off through any normal channels. Experts feel that the crime was committed in order to extract a ransom. This seems like a dumb idea. Have you ever heard of a ransom being successful? But maybe we never hear about successful ransomings because the authorities don't want to encourage anyone. Is it possible this is a Thomas Crown affair? Where someone so wants a work of art that they hire armed thugs to steal it in order to possess it. Who could be so unscrupulous? Larry Gagosian? In all seriousness, it is entirely possible that there is network of black market art collecting. From all the lawsuits and court cases that Artnews so diligently reports on, it isn't hard to believe that all sorts of underhanded dealings go on in the art world. Such things go on in every other aspect of the world, so it is entirely possible here too.
Experts in the field of giving disappointing statistics about stolen art say that the higher profile the piece, the harder it is to sell. If they can't ransom it, or turn it in for a reward, the Munch marauders would probably trade it for drugs. This was the gist of what Tony Russell of Art Recovery Ltd had to say.
About 5 billion dollars of art gets stolen every year. About 5% is recovered. But the more high profile the art, the more likely it will be returned for a ransom. So I guess ransoming does work. And there is a secret web of clandestine art traders. Apparently the real money is in stealing less valuable works and selling them unnoticed. Most of the art is stolen from homes and sold on the internet. So that is why art auctioning online has failed, there's a better way!
It makes you wonder how much of the art on Ebay is stolen. It is the only online auctioning of art left and it groups its art by color. "Green paintings," for instance. I once had a conversation with a businesswoman from South Africa who was posative she saw an Utrillo (Maurice Utrillo, French, 1883 - 1955) on Ebay, and that it was going for very cheap. Very suspicious. I told her she'd better snatch it up then and cash in.
Galleries and museums each have about 12% of the loss that makes up the yummy pie graph of art purloinery. For those of you who think art doesn't matter to the rest of the world, art crime is fourth behind drugs, money laundering and gun running. The experts feel that this type of crime isn't linked to an artlover with masterpieces on their walls. It's part of organized crime and connected with the other three top crimes being committed. Well fuck you, I like my theory.
The other expert was Sarah Jackson of the Art Loss Register.
But don't forget that Madonna was also stolen. Again, in his text, Bischoff mentions that five versions of this painting exist. This image is also in lithograph form, so that number is higher, like the 50 Screams. Both paintings were part of Munch's opus work The Frieze of Life. Which was a tour de force of the human experience, but mainly the sad bits. When discussing the Madonna, and when it was displayed as part of the Frieze of Life in 1903 in Leipzig, Bischoff notes that it is "impossible to be certain which of the five versions Munch painted of this picture it was." The Munch Museum Madonna is oil on canvas, and there are four other versions done in paint. Two are in private collections. The National Gallery owns one and so does the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Now, after consulting the information on The Munch Museum's website, I thought I had finalized the details. But I am still confused. In Bischoff's book on Munch, the reproduction of the Madonna is credited to the National Gallery, not The Munch Museum. This is so in other publications I looked at as well. Now the Bischoff Munch book is from 1995, so it is possible in the meantime, that one could have come to the Munch Museum. It is not possible that the reproductions are of two different paintings. I compared the reproduction in the Bischoff book to the one on The Munch Museum's website, and located several nuances that showed up in both images, eccentricities such as drips, gestural marks, and stains, which would not be possible for Munch to have created twice by hand. The National Gallery's website provided no insights. So is this the Madonna that was stolen or not? I don't know.
Museum people handle a version of Madonna in an AP file photo
story.madonna.ap
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.
Comparing the AP file photo of two people handling The Madonna, with the more common reproductions, it is obvious we have two different paintings. The odd thing is how The Munch Museum reproduction looks, for all intents and purposes, to be the one that The National Gallery owns. The only differnce is in the photo of the two museum people holding it. So maybe that is the one The Munch Museum owns, and for some reason, the wrong Madonna is on their website. There is just too many contradictory instances where the Madonna of the website is credited to the National Gallery.
Now, how exactly did the August 22nd heist go down? During regular museum hours on Sunday, August 22nd, 2004, two armed gunman, wielding firearms burst in on stunned guards and patrons. One witness said a man in black ran to the Madonna and "grabbed [it] off the wall and then he started banging it against the wall and against the ground because the gray strings weren't breaking off for him. [...] He then sawThe Scream ran towards that and grabbed that off the wall and then he started rushing out the door." The patrons ran out the back.
Authorities at the crime scene
story.norway.museum.ap
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.
The "gray strings" the witness refers to are probably an antiquated security device that basically anchored the painting to the wall. While artworks today are secured to the wall or the floor, that is not usually the first and last line of defense. We aren't dealing with pens at a bank. Eyewitnesses said that no alarms could be heard and the guards did not try to stop the burglars. Jorunn Christophersen, the head of public affairs at the Munch Museum believes the robbers knew exactly where the pieces were. She also stated that alarms did in fact go off. So maybe they were silent ones. But it still doesn't explain the guards not doing anything. But remember, these are museum guards, not policemen or body guards. The most they expect to deal with is an unruly child, a touchy-feely old lady or a drunkard at a reception. Not armed bandits.
The Norwegian government expressed outrage, among other negative feelings, at the thought that the works were not more carefully secured.
Chistophersen pointed out that the paintings were held down with screws.
I sure hope a lot was lost in the translation.
Norway seems to have a lot of trouble with securing their art. The thieves in the 1994 caper had little difficulty with circumventing security at the National Gallery. The windows did not have alarms, even. I did not find out if security there has since beefed up in the last ten years. All I can say is I hope that there is better security protecting those crappy Frederick Remmington horse paintings in our National Gallery.
The perps at their getaway car
story.munch.car.ap
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.
There was video footage taken of the larceny, cos everyone knows that in Europe everything you do is taped, and this led authorities to the getaway car, a black Audi. But by the looks of it, a decidedly proletariat Audi. The picture frames were found in another part of town. The painting pilferers had cut them out as they fled in their car. Reports aren't clear and I hope this doesn't mean they slashed the canvases off the stretchers. As they ran to their car, the canvas canoodlers twice dropped the priceless (approx. $90 mill.) artworks- D'oh!
Further investigation revealed that the fine-art-filchers blew off a fire extinguisher when abandoning their car in order to destroy any fingerprints or DNA. This is more effective and inconspicuous than setting incriminating evidence ablaze. It is believed they removed the frames in case any tracking devices were embedded in them. Not to worry fellas, the museum did not take that liberty.
The discarded picture frames
story.frames.ap
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.
A Norwegian magazine is offering 100,000 Norwegian Crowns ($14,670) for the paintings' safe return. The City of Oslo, whom Munch left the bulk of his work to, has no such interest in bargaining with high-culture-hijackers. Experts, what do they know, feel this may help flush out the evildoers, though.
From the Munch-Museet:
"The museum will be closed until the end of October. Concerts and special events already planned will be carried out. Exhibitions in the museum: the museum is closed."
As of October 22nd, this was all to be found in any way relating to the incident on the museum's website. They are closed to enhance security, something already being planned before this catastrophe. You can hardly blame them for closing. It is quite a shocking and embarrassing thing to have happen. How would you react if you were in a holdup, except it was in a giant lobby and what was being stolen was artifacts, not cash from the register?
On Friday, October 15th, 2004, Norwegian police told Reuters they had identified a group of hooligans linked to the ill-gotten art-carrying-Audi. Apparently the two gunmen had just one gun, so they weren't as armed to the teeth as I've led you to believe. They also used wire cutters to cut the chords securing the paintings. Police feel they are narrowing in on their quarry.
I have created this report based on my obtuse sense of humor and several great sources of information. The most definitive information on the various versions of The Scream and Madonna was found at the Munch Museum's website. The meat of the details relating to the current robbery were from CNN reports contributed to by journalist Erlend Fernandez & CNN's Glenn van Zutphen, and CNN correspondent Jim Boulden. The CNN reports utilized Associated Press information. The developments of Friday, October 15, were from a Reuters report.
The information about the pyschic and the first robbery was from a documentary produced by the BBC and the Discovery channel on pyschic crime fighters.
Finally, Munch by Ulrich Bischoff, published by Taschen in 1993 and 1995 with English translation by Michael Hulse.
Madonna
1895-1902
Lithograph
60.5 x 44.2 cm
Ulrich Bischoff discusses the Madonna painting, he notes that, "at all events, when the painting was first shown in public [,] it had a frame that was decorated with painted or carved sperm or fetuses. This frame was subsequently removed and apparently lost." When Munch began to create the image in prints, we see the idea resurfaced, as in this lithograph.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Dateline October!
The Likes of Them was a success and a great experience to be involved with. It finished last Sunday, but lives on in our hearts. You can view some new images from the show, as well as the previous ones by scrolling down. Ruprecht Dogheit & Associates, the artists, and all those involved would like to thank everyone who stopped by and those that showed support.
Audrey Peiper is hard at work on our inaugural TOP TEN list, so watch this space for future knowledge in the form of a hierarchy! Ms. Peiper holds an MFA from the School of the Art Inst. of etc &c. in Arts Administration and co-directs Locus Projects with her husband. Locus Projects is an alternative art program that takes physical form as a large camping battery.
Audrey Peiper is hard at work on our inaugural TOP TEN list, so watch this space for future knowledge in the form of a hierarchy! Ms. Peiper holds an MFA from the School of the Art Inst. of etc &c. in Arts Administration and co-directs Locus Projects with her husband. Locus Projects is an alternative art program that takes physical form as a large camping battery.
The Likes of Them images
Outside
Exterior view of the Little Known Gallery
In the windows works on paper by Kimberly Aubuchon, Mariano Chavez, Jason Dunda, Jeremy Somer & Erik Wenzel are visable.
Inside
from left to right:
Kimberly Aubuchon
Snorkel Nose Smells Trouble
Gloss latex enamel & Sharpie on canvas
2004
Erik Wenzel
I Love You & I Love Our Bone
Various materials
2004
Chris Uphues
Bathroom installation &
Lids
Found materials
2004
Erik Wenzel
detail of:
I Love You & I Love Our Bone
Found materials, drawings, paper, and acrylic & masking tape on aluminum foil
2004
Jeremy Somer
left:
untitled
Watercolor on paper
2004
right:
Induction
Oil on canvas
2004
also seen is The Likes of Them poster by Mariano Chavez
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