On 12 February 1994, the same day as the opening of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, two men broke into the National Gallery, Oslo, and stole its version of ‘The Scream’, leaving a note reading “Thanks for the poor security“. The painting had been moved down to a second-story gallery as part of the Olympic festivities. After the gallery refused to pay a ransom demand of US$1 million in March 1994, Norwegian police set up a sting operation with assistance from the British police and the Getty Museum and the painting was recovered undamaged on 7 May 1994. In January 1996, four men were convicted in connection with the theft, including Pål Enger, who had been convicted of stealing Munch‘s ‘Love and Pain’ in 1988. They were released on appeal on legal grounds: the British agents involved in the sting operation had entered Norway under false identities.
Read more on Wikipedia
