Saturday, September 02, 2006

"The Scream" is back where it belongs; and a Boston side story


One of the world's most famous paintings has been recovered.


Oslo - Two stolen masterpieces by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch appeared only to have sustained minor damage after their theft from a museum in August 2004, museum officials said Friday.

Two armed men ripped the famous paintings - Madonna and a version of The Scream - off the museum walls and fled in a stolen car.

Oslo police announced Thursday they had retrieved the works that were stolen from the Munch Museum, where security has since been improved.

Acting museum director Ingebjorg Ydstie said experts had determined the works were authentic and were now safely back in the museum's care.

'Two small holes in Madonna' had been detected, she said while The Scream, which was painted on cardboard, had been 'damaged in one corner,' likely when it was dropped on the floor.

Experts would study the paintings in detail, but an ordinary museum visitor would perhaps not be able to detect the damage.

While art experts welcomed the safe return of the works announced Thursday, speculation continued over whether police had been tipped off by the alleged ringleader of a April 2004 bank robbery in the coastal city of Stavanger, in which a policeman was killed.

The 31-year-old David Toska, sentenced to 19 years, has according to recent media reports offered to help retrieve the paintings in return for a reduced sentence and better terms in prison including more visitation rights with his girlfriend.

The opposition Progress Party urged Justice Minister Knut Storberget to clarify if a deal had been made.

Norwegian media have speculated that the Munch paintings were stolen to divert police resources from the bank robbery probe.

Oslo police said that no ransom was paid, and no new arrests had been made. In May, a Norwegian court sentenced three men to jail terms ranging from four to eight years for their role in the theft.

Meanwhile, Forbes recalls another famous art heist involving men behind bars; that of the Isaballa Gardner Museum in 1990.

Then there's America's greatest art mystery, still unsolved. At 1:24 a.m. on the morning after St. Patrick's Day, 1990, two men in police uniforms knocked on a side door of Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, mentioning a "disturbance" on the grounds. The guards let them in and were swiftly handcuffed and locked in a cellar. The work the thieves made off with included "The Concert" by Vermeer, "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee"--which is Rembrandt's only marine painting--"Chez Tortoni" by Manet, five pieces by Degas and some miscellanea that includes a Chinese bronze beaker and a fitment from a Napoleonic flagstaff. Untouched were the Renaissance paintings, including Titian's "Europa," which is arguably the most valuable piece in the collection.

The current dollar figure attached to the stolen work is $300 million. In 1997, with the investigation moribund, the museum raised the reward from $1 million to $5 million. Tipsters understandably emerged, among them a Boston antiques dealer, William P. Youngworth III. He was a shady character but gained attention by telling Tom Mashberg, a reporter for The Boston Herald, that he and a colorful character named Myles Connor could get the art returned. His price: immunity for himself, the release of Connor from jail and, naturally, the reward.

Connor was behind bars at the time of the Gardner heist--for another art heist--but claimed he could locate the art if released. Credibility soon began to leak. Then Mashberg got a telephone call that led to a nocturnal drive to a warehouse, where he was shown--by torchlight--what may or may not have been Rembrandt's "Storm on the Sea of Galilee." He was later given some paint chips, supposedly from that painting.

Doubts sprang up, as the chips were not from the Rembrandt. The U.S. attorney demanded that one of the paintings be returned as proof that the works were on hand. This didn't happen.

Negotiations petered out. Connor is now out of jail, but the art is still missing.

Twists and turns like this make the recovery of "The Scream" all the more exciting. Painted in 1893, it is said to be worth around $74.5 million and was uninsured because the museum felt it was priceless. An interesting strategy, given its history. Not only is it one of the world's best-known paintings, it is also one of the most stolen. In 1994, one version of the iconic Expressionist painting was also stolen from the Norwegian National Gallery--and later recovered.

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