Munchmuseet (Munch Museum)

Munchmuseet (Munch Museum) Review

Edvard Munch, Norway's most famous artist, bequeathed his enormous collection of works (about 1,100 paintings, 3,000 drawings, and 18,000 graphic works) to the city when he died in 1944. The museum is a monument to his artistic genius, housing the largest collection of his works and changing exhibitions. Munch actually painted several different versions of The Scream, the image for which he's best known. An important one of his Scream paintings, as well as another painting, The Madonna, were stolen from the Munch Museum in an armed robbery in 2004 but were fortunately recovered in 2006, and put back on display in 2008 after extensive restoration work. While most of the Munch legend focuses on the artist as a troubled, angst-ridden man, he moved away from that pessimistic and dark approach to more optimistic themes later in his career.