by Pierre-Henry Deshayes
OSLO, Aug 22 (AFP) - A version of Edvard Munch`s masterpiece "The Scream" and another famous painting by the great Norwegian artist were stolen from an Oslo museum on Sunday by armed and hooded robbers, police said.
The thieves burst into the Munch Museum, home to dozens of works by the early modernist genius, and made off with the "The Scream" (1893) as well as "Madonna" (1893-94).
"I can confirm that there was an armed robbery. The criminals threatened an employee with a gun and took the two canvasses," said police official Kjell Pedersen.
The thieves -- two or three according to varying accounts -- escaped in a dark-coloured vehicle and were being sought by police.
The museum confirmed that an armed robbery had taken place but declined to comment further.
"The Scream" has become an iconic symbol of Expressionist angst, showing an individual on a bridge, hands clasped around the head and mouth wide open in an apparent yell of despair.
Munch (1863-1944) painted four versions of the work, of which the Munch museum held two -- the one stolen on Sunday and another in reserve, according to the Verdens Gang newspaper. A private collector owns a third.
The fourth, and best-known, version of the oil painting hangs in the Oslo National Gallery, from where it was stolen in 1994, to be recovered intact three months later.
According to a witness, the works were on display at the Munch museum with only minimum security precautions when the robbery took place, at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT).
"What is surprising is that the two paintings were hung by simple cables in the first room, which is nearest to the exit," Francois Castang, a reporter for France Musiques radio station, who was in the museum at the time of the theft, told AFP.
"I was visiting the museum as a tourist when... I heard shouts in the first room where the pictures were hanging, 30 metres (yards) from the exit.
"There was no search at the entrance, no controls, no security, no alarm. It was almost tempting to take the works," he said.
He said he had tested security by lifting another picture from the wall.
"No alarm, no electric wire, just the cords."
He said the whole incident was over in less than a minute.
"We did not hear any alarm and it took a while for the police to arrive," American tourist Mary Assiliou told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Norwegian Culture Minister Valgerd Svarstad Haugland described the theft as "dreadful and shocking."
"We have not protected our cultural treasures adequately. We must learn the lessons," she said.
Police later found fragments of a picture frame lying close to the spot where a witness reported seeing a suspect vehicle.
In 1994, the National Gallery version was stolen with the aid of a simple ladder. Three years later, a former footballer was sent to prison for six months for the theft.