[CPProt.net] Demand 700 million in Munch compensation

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Demand 700 million in Munch compensation
The City of Oslo has demanded NOK 700 million (USD 111 million) in
compensation if the Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" are not
recovered.
 
The City warned that this demand would be leveled against those eventually
convicted of the theft of the paintings, which were stolen at gunpoint from
Oslo's Munch Museum last August. 

Police lawyer Morten Hojem Ervik told newspaper VG that they would factor
this claim into eventual prosecution but that police were still highly
optimistic that the paintings would be recovered.

On Thursday newspaper Dagbladet cited criminal sources and a secret police
report stating that the paintings had been incinerated, but police sources
belittled the article.

The head of the Munch Museum, Gunnar Sørensen, said Thursday that they had
now requested armed police escorts to accompany their artworks when being
transported, at home or abroad.

Works from the City of Oslo's art collection are regularly on loan to
exhibitions around Europe, and security is now a top concern. Sørensen
believes the risk needs to be taken, but security must be a priority.

"We have a responsibility to make Munch known and this must be weighed up
against other responsibilities," Sørensen said.

Tron Wigeland Nilsen, secretary general of the Norwegian Museum Federation,
said the discussion of armed escorts for art showed that museums were paying
attention to existing conditions.

"We have been aware for several years that there is a new, menacing
situation in Europe and there has been a definite concern that a robbery
could occur. This is a new situation for the Norwegian museum scene and the
autumn (Munch) robbery was a major increase in the spiral of violence,"
Nilsen said.