The Scream' - Hauled Away from AP Reports That the Scream Joins More Than Munch Museum 150,000 Lost Works of Art Which Specialists Say May Never Be Found
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Arts & Archaeology - international The Scream' - hauled away from AP reports that The Scream joins more than Munch Museum 150,000 lost works of art which specialists say may never be found. Stealing art may be easy, but finding The Scream' and 'Madonna', famous paintings of someone to buy it is a long, difficult process. During Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, were yanked from the millennium celebrations on December 31, 1999, the Munch museum in Oslo on August, 2004. Two thieves in Oxford, England made off with Paul gunmen threatened the museum staff with a handgun, Cezanne's Anverssur-Oise, worth US$5 million. while dozens of horrified museum-goers watched, The painting has not been found. London writer stunned as the armed men carried the paintings to a Edward Dolnick has published an estimate of works of waiting getaway car. Many visitors panicked, thinking art stolen, lost, and missing, including 551 Picassos, they were being attacked by terrorists. 43 Van Goghs, 174 Rembrandts and 209 Renoirs. As they drove through the city, the thieves The database at Interpol tallies 20,000 missing broke the frames of the paintings, and threw out the art works, paintings making up half of them; while the bits from the window of the car, in case tracking Art Loss Register in Britain lists perhaps 150,000, with devices were lodged in the wood. Italian authorities giving a higher number. This is not the first time The Scream went A report by Reuters revealed how poorly Edvard missing. In February 1994, it was stolen from the Munch treated his own art work. It found that the museum, and recovered by police almost three months artist often left oil paintings outdoor, exposed to the later, undamaged in a hotel in Asgardstrand, about sun, rain and snow, footprints, even bird droppings, 65km south of the capital, Oslo. The police arrested etc. (The Scream and Madonna were not exposed to three Norwegians for the theft. The trio had de- outdoor conditions). He stunned experts at the time by manded from the government a US$1 million ransom deliberately not protecting his works from the for the work of art, but a deal was not made, investiga- elements so as to make them appear faded, with tors said. broken pastels, holes and scratches. Munch described The Scream, which was created on fragile paper the treatment as the "horse cure" or "kill-or-cure" in 1893, evokes a terrified human figure with hands to process. It seems that he didn't like the heavy, shiny the head, in an apparent panic under a tumultuous surface of oil paint, and the "cure" helped to give the blood-red sky. It makes reference to the horrors of the surfaces a matt look, because it cracked finely and Holocaust, nuclear explosions and a world of fear. It appeared like a fresco or pastel. has been estimated that if auctioned legitimately, The It was reported that in 1972, Munch shocked a Scream would be worth about US$70 million. German art specialist by using a broom to sweep snow The Madonna is a painting of a mysterious, off works that were buried in his Oslo garden. bare-breasted woman with black hair surrounded by Another visitor said that when Munch was living in sperm in motion, and a fetus in the corner. Munch, Berlin in 1893, paintings were found in the wash basin, both painter and graphic artist, painted it between 1894 and others placed on the floor, where some had been and 1895. He also worked in Germany, and his works walked on. featured a highly-charged emotion, gaining significance Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944, and never during the growth of the 20th-century Expressionist married, is known, however, to value his works of art movement. despite the treatment - he referred to his paintings as Security provided for works of art is barely his "only children". The artist made many versions of existent and amazingly lax. Most museums operate on his main works; the well-known version of The Scream, limited budgets, and could not afford it. In some, such in Oslo's National Gallery, contained dribbles of candle as the Munch, there had not been an alarm system or wax on the right side, apparently spilt by Munch, and protection for the paintings. They were attached by a small hole, dabbed over with blue paint. He once wires to the walls, and could be pulled loose, and wrote to reassure a friend: 'To become a real Munch, carried off. they [the paintings] have to have holes and scratches". Insurance is a rare practice, even though private collectors might be covered; protection, it is reckoned, can be extremely costly. 52 SPAFA Journal Vol, 13 No. 3 Arts & Archaeology - international A Vermeer sold for $30m The 9th century BC Etruscan necropolises include thousands of ancient tombs, murals and Johannes Vermeer's "Young Woman Seated at the Vir- elaborate 'tumuli' or burial mounds at two massive ginals' became the first painting by the Dutch master cemeteries north of Rome. The other site is the Val to be auctioned in more than 80 years. The painting, d'Orcia rural landscape of rolling hills and picturesque which for decades has been suspected of being fake, villages near Siena, a region that was redesigned sold for US$30 million at Sotheby's on 7th of July 2004. during the 14th and 15th centuries, featuring valleys Intense bidding took place before an anonymous tele- consisting of vineyards and fortified settlements on top phone bidder finally clinched it of conical hills. Over the last century, art historians have The famous Etruscan Necroplises of Cerveteri alternately accepted/rejected the painting, but after and Tarquinia and the rural landscape of Tuscany's Val years of forensic examination, including chemical analy- d'Orcia increased the number of heritage sites belong- sis of the paint and pigment and x-rays of the canvas, ing to Italy to thirty-nine. Spain, previously tied with *Young Woman Seated at the Virginals' is finally Italy at thirty-seven sites each. The Unesco list accepted as a part of the collection of paintings includes 788 cultural and natural properties. acknowledged as the works of Vermeer by a group of scholars, museum curators, painting conservators, Business blighting Borobudur costume experts, paint analysts and auction house experts who studied it Sotheby's believed it was genu- Borobudur in west Indonesia, built around 800 AD, is ine. The investigation revealed that the pigment in the the largest Buddhist temple on earth, located in the 25x20cm small painting is identical to that used by world's most populous Muslim country. A team of Vermeer, and that the canvas is the same size as explorers and surveyors, searching for the glorious his The Lacemaker* (now displayed in The Louvre ruin of a lost site in central Java, discovered the monu- Museum, Paris). ment under volcanic ash and jungle in the 1800s. It had "Young Woman Seated at the Virginals', a been abandoned for about a thousand years. sensual work that dates about 1670, depicts an intimate The site has become a major tourist attraction scene of a young woman seated at a kind of for both Indonesia and Southeast Asia, but the harpsichord, her eyes gazing directly at the viewer. religious significance of the monument, however, does The origin of it is as obscure as the history of Vermeer not seem important to many in the country, and com- who was not a prolific artist; he lived, worked and died mercialization is very much present at the site today. (at 43, in 1675) in the picturesque Dutch pottery town Borobudur reflects a Buddhist view of the of Delft It appears that the recent popularity and universe, and is a construction of a series of square interest in Vermeer has been inspired by the best- and circular terraces that visitors can move on toward selling novel, 'Girl With a Pearl Earring" and the top where a stupa (mound-shaped structure the recent movie based on the book. sheltering relics) is located, representing nirvana - the The previous Vermeer auctioned was The Little ultimate religious experience and enlightenment. On Street" (1658-1660) in Amsterdam in 1921, which failed stone walls are carved reliefs that illustrate Buddhist to attract a buyer at the sale. It was subsequently philosophy and the Buddha's life. Staircases lead up to bought by a collector who donated it to the Rijksmuseum the circular terraces, where stupas host Buddha in Amsterdam. statues overlooking the tropical green plain and its distant volcanoes. Italy: most Unesco heritage sites; While Indonesia cashes in the Unesco World Spain in 2nd place Heritage site through tourism, observers are concerned that the increased number of vendors at the site might Italy has become the country with the most sites on be putting tourists off. Hawkers haggling visitors is the United Nations' World Heritage List; with its becoming an all too common sight. Tourists find them- Etruscan tombs and Tuscan area included as on 14 selves followed by sellers of musical instruments, soft July 2004. drinks, souvenirs, etc.. SPAFA Journal Vol. 13 No. 3 53 Arts & Archaeology • international The situation led to ideas about cleaning up the are damaging the famous heritage of China, irretriev- site by building a shopping complex. Critics are ada- ably destroying historical structures in the ancient mant that such ideas are not solutions to the problem, capital of Xian, but rather an exacerbation of it. Somehow, a shopping It reported the China Daily as saying that the mall and a place of peace and contemplation do not insects are biting into the old wood, and monuments seem to be incongruous to some tourism promoters.