Munch's "The Scream" stolen at gunpoint.

[LibLabUK]

Armed robbers have stolen the iconic Edvard Munch painting, The Scream, from the Munch Museum in Norway. Two masked thieves pulled the work and another painting, Madonna, off the wall as stunned visitors watched. One robber threatened staff with a gun before the pair escaped in a waiting car, a museum officer told the BBC.

Another version of the painting was stolen in 1994 and was recovered three months later. Three Norwegians were arrested in connection with that theft.

Jorunn Christofferson, a press officer at the Munch Museum, told the BBC the museum was full of people when the robbers took the two paintings - frames and all - off the walls of the gallery. Kjell Pedersen of the Oslo police told the Norwegian daily Aftenposten that police had "mobilised all available resources on the ground and in the air".

Nobody was hurt and no shots were fired, Ms Christofferson said. She said the museum had closed-circuit television that would have captured the event on video, but that the thieves "were wearing black hoods, like bank robbers".

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