Norwegian painter Mr.Edvard Munch s masterpieces The Scream and Madonna were put on show on Tuesday 2006-09-26 for the first time since police recovered them in 2006-08 and two years after they were stolen from an Oslo museum.
The paintings dating from 1893 suffered minor damage at the hands of thieves who had stolen them from in broad daylight in front of stunned tourists on 2004-08-22.
The paintings are not so damaged so that it would be impossible to have a complete aesthetic experience of them, said Ms.Ingebjoerg Ydstie (Ingebjorg Ydstie), acting chief curator and director of The Munch Museum .
The pictures, shown to the media on Tuesday, will be on public display from Wednesday to Sunday before restoration work begins.
We want to share the homecoming of the paintings with visitors, Ms.Ydstie said. Restoration could take about a year.
Madonna had a hole about the size of a coin and a smaller tear in the canvas. The damage to The Scream was harder to discern, but it suffered dampness in the left lower corner.
The Scream , Munch s most famous work, is an icon of existential angst, showing a terrified figure against a blood-red sky.
Madonna shows a bare-breasted woman with long black hair.
One cannot go in and fix it from the back.
The paintings were recovered two years and nine days after they were stolen by two masked gunmen.
The Norwegian police have not said how they recovered them.
Three men were convicted in 2006-05 of taking part in the theft and were sentenced to up to eight years in jail. Three other men were acquitted.
Police did not made any new arrests or charges in connection with the recovery.
Museum officials said on Tuesday 2006-09-26 that they did not know any more about where the paintings had been for over two years nor how they had been damaged.
It was recovered after several months by police posing as buyers.
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