OSLO, NORWAY — Experts fear that theft damage to Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream," one of the world's most famous images, may be too extensive to completely repair, according to a report to be released today.
The painting and another Munch masterpiece, "Madonna," were recovered by police in August, two years after they were stolen from Oslo's Munch Museum by masked gunmen in a brazen daylight heist on Aug. 22, 2004. Police have refused to say how they recovered the artworks or where they had been for two years.
After extensive study, museum experts are turning over a 200-page assessment to Oslo police that among other things expresses concern about moisture damage to a swath of "The Scream."
"Water has been absorbed by one corner of the paper board, and there is abrasion damage on the lower part of the painting," museum curator Ingebjoerg Ydstie told the TV-2 network. "We have a large swath that is very visible."
