Flame comes, Munch goes

ONE of the world's most famous pictures, Edvard Munch's The Scream, was stolen early yesterday by two thieves who broke into Norway's National Art Museum in Oslo.

The gallery's security systems were circumvented with blithe contempt. The picture, perhaps the greatest icon of modern angst, shows a waif-like figure covering its ears and crying out in fear to a swirling, uncomprehending world.

The 50-second raid could not have been simpler. The thieves pushed a ladder against the museum wall at about 6.30am, smashed a window and climbed in.

Ignoring the museum alarms and video cameras, the intruders cut the picture wire and scurried quickly down the ladder, carrying the portrait, its expression of anxiety appropriate to the pre-dawn excursion.

Norway's greatest picture was hanging in a festival of Norwegian culture which marked the opening of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. The theft was the second ill augury for the Games. Last Thursday Ole Gunnar Fidjestoel was injured while practising for the centrepiece of yesterday's opening ceremony. He was meant to perfect a ski jump into the stadium carrying the Olympic torch. He lost balance, however, and fell badly, twisting his neck and suffering concussion on landing.

Meanwhile, the American televsion network CBS has infuriated true winter sports enthusiasts by concentrating its Games coverage on the proceedings against alleged friends of the figure skater Tonya Harding, who are accused of trying to destroy the chances of rival Nancy Kerrigan by attacking her with an iron bar.

Munch painted The Scream - which is also known as The Shriek or The Cry, depending on how the original Norwegian title, Skriet, is translated - in 1893. It is part of his The Frieze of Life series, in which sickness, death, anxiety and love are central themes.

Munch produced several versions of the work, but the stolen version is considered to be the best. The gallery's director, Knut Berg, said that the painting was too easily recognised to be resold, and too valuable to put a price on.

(Photograph omitted)