Munch's 'The Scream' apparently undamaged in theft

Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream".

OSLO - Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" was apparently undamaged in a 2004 robbery but the less well-known "Madonna" suffered a minor tear, a man accused in connection with the theft said yesterday.

"The paintings weren't wrecked in the robbery," Thomas Nataas told Reuters of the two works stolen by gunmen from Oslo's Munch Museum in August 2004 and then stashed for several weeks in a bus owned by Nataas on farmland north of Oslo.

"I saw there was what looked like an insignificant tear (in "Madonna")," he said. "The other ("The Scream") looked in okay condition." He said he had not inspected the works closely after stumbling across them.

Art experts had feared the works, painted by Munch, a Norwegian, in 1893, were badly damaged when the thieves ripped off the wooden frames and threw them out of the windows of a getaway car, apparently fearing the frames might be embedded with a satellite tracking device.

Nataas, 35, is due to go on trial next month charged with handling stolen goods. Five other men are accused of planning the theft and stealing the paintings, which have not been recovered.

"I am innocent," Nataas said, adding he only found the paintings in plastic bags after noticing that someone had broken into the bus.

Separately, he told Norway's TV2 independent television channel that he had been scared to report his find to the police, fearing that criminals might somehow take revenge on him. He said he knew one of the other accused men.

Nataas said police had bungled an attempt to seize the paintings when the robbers moved them to a new hiding place on September 24, 2004.

He said police had been tapping his phone when one of the accused called Nataas several days in advance to say they would collect the paintings. Police charge that Nataas wrapped up the paintings ready for collection.

"I don't know why the police didn't come and pick up the paintings. They had full control," he said.

"The Scream" portrays a terrified waif-like figure under a blood-red sky. It has become an icon of angst after a century scarred by horrors including the atom bomb and the Holocaust.

"Madonna" shows a mysterious bare-breasted woman with long flowing black hair.

- REUTERS