Munch works stolen in Norway

Three works by renowned Norwegian artist Edvard Munch were stolen from a hotel in southern Norway, although no information was immediately available on their value, police said today.

The art works were taken from the Refnes Hotel near the city of Moss, about 30 miles south of Oslo, late yesterday, said Paul Horne of the Oestfold district police.

“It was last night at 23:08 that we got a report of the theft,” he said on the state radio network NRK. He said police searched the area during the night without success, and are seeking witnesses.

“They are the real thing,” Horne told the NTB news agency.

Horne described the works as paintings, while the hotel owner told NRK that two of the stolen art works were lithographic prints and one was a water-colour from the hotel’s collection of seven Munch works.

They were taken from the hotel restaurant after closing hours.

Hotel owner Vidar Salbuvik told NRK that the two lithographs were portraits, including one of the artist himself, and that the third was a water-colour titled the The Blue Dress from 1915.

It was the second theft of Munch paintings in Norway in less than seven months.

The masterpieces The Scream and Madonna were stolen in a brazen daylight raid from an Oslo museum on August 22 by three masked robbers, and have yet to be recovered.

In 1994, another version of The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo and was recovered a few months later in a sting operation.

Munch, a Norwegian, developed an emotionally charged painting style that was of great importance in the birth of the 20th century Expressionist movement. He died in 1944 at the age of 80.