Armed robbers stole two masterpieces by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch from a museum in Oslo today, including a version of The Scream.
The paintings stolen from the Munch Museum included a version of the famous portrait of modern angst, and a version of another key work, Madonna.
Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'
The two armed and masked raiders yanked the masterpieces from the wall, walked out the front door and escaped in a black Audi car driven by a third man who had been waiting outside, police said.
Some stunned tourists said they feared they were victims of a terror attack.
The paintings were later cut from their frames which were found smashed and scattered in an Oslo street. The car was separately found abandoned a few miles away.
Police cordoned off the museum, informed Interpol and alerted airports and border crossings. No shots were fired but a female guard was treated for shock.
Another and perhaps better-known version of The Scream, a painting of a waiflike figure on a bridge, was stolen from Norway's National Gallery in a break-in on February 1994, on the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
Three Norwegians were arrested. At the time, investigators said the trio tried to ransom the painting, demanding a million dollars from the government. It was never paid and the painting was retrieved several months later and remains in that gallery.
Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944 and who was a pioneer of modern expressionism, made several copies of his key works, including The Scream.
He painted
The Screamin 1893, as part of his
Frieze of Lifeseries, in which sickness, death, anxiety, and love are central themes. The National Art Museum owns 58 paintings by Munch .