Stolen, recovered and mended "Scream" back on view

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian painter Edvard Munch's "The Scream" goes back on display this week after repairs to the masterpiece which was stolen in 2004 and recovered by police two years later, museum officials said on Wednesday.

The world-famous picture and another Munch painting "Madonna" were stolen by armed robbers in broad daylight before stunned visitors at the Munch Museum in August 2004, removed from their frames and damaged while in the thieves' possession.

Since their recovery in August 2006 they have been out of sight, except for a brief showing, under restoration by a team of five conservators at the museum.

Munch's most famous work, "The Scream" is an icon of existential angst showing a terrified howling figure against a blood-red sky.

Earlier thought to be from 1893, the Munch Museum's "Scream" -- the artist painted four versions and also made lithographs -- has been redated to 1910 as a result of a discussion by experts which has been continuing since the early 1970s.

"We cannot exclude a further new dating if new research makes that necessary," museum director Ingebjoerg Ydstie said during an advance showing for reporters before the May 23 opening of an exhibition documenting the restoration work.

Despite that work, paid for by Japanese oil company Idemitsu, the pictures still bear the scars of the robbery.

The lower left corner of "The Scream," painted on cardboard, was stained by water and the surface marred by breaking glass.

"There are still some small pieces of glass in the cardboard," said chief conservator Mette Havrevold. "Most of the things we have done are invisible, but that's a good result."

"We don't have an opinion on the monetary value, but as an artistic icon it is unchanged," Ydstie said.

The canvas of "Madonna," showing a bare-breasted beauty with flowing black hair, was torn in several places. The rips have been painstakingly mended thread by thread and the paint retouched, but the holes in the 1894 picture are still visible.

"It was very important not to do anything that cannot be redone if we get better methods in the future," Ydstie said. "We have more than a thousand-year perspective in taking care of these paintings."

Three men were convicted of taking part in the theft and sentenced to up to eight years in jail. Two of them were ordered to pay $122 million in damages.

Police have not said how they recovered the paintings. Another version of "The Scream" was stolen in 1994 from Oslo's National Gallery and regained by police posing as art buyers.