MUNCH

The Scream has been stolen twice. The first time was February 12, 1994 — deliberately chosen to coincide with the opening of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics for maximum national embarrassment. Two men broke into the National Gallery, grabbed the 1893 version, and left a note that read: "Thanks for the poor security." Norway refused a one-million-dollar ransom demand. A sting operation involving Norwegian police, Scotland Yard, and the Getty Museum recovered it undamaged three months later.

The second theft was bolder. On August 22, 2004, masked gunmen walked into the old Munch Museum at Tøyen in broad daylight. One held guards at gunpoint while another used wire cutters to clip The Scream and Madonna off the wall. Both paintings were recovered in 2006, and two men were ordered to pay 750 million kroner in compensation to Oslo — roughly 117 million dollars.

After those humiliations, the city decided Munch's work deserved a fortress. The new MUNCH museum opened in October 2021 — a thirteen-story tower clad in recycled perforated aluminum that leans dramatically toward the adjacent Opera House. Designed by Spanish firm Estudio Herreros, it houses approximately 28,000 works that Munch bequeathed to Oslo upon his death in 1944. The building is five times larger than the old museum, with eleven exhibition halls and ceiling heights up to seven meters. Its load-bearing structure was designed for a two-hundred-year lifetime.

Locals have strong opinions about the building. Some love the leaning silhouette; others compare it to a factory chimney. But inside, the collection is staggering: not just The Scream but the full arc of Munch's obsessions — anxiety, love, death, jealousy — rendered in paint across sixty years of relentless output. He gave Oslo everything. Now it finally has a building worthy of the gift.