The Scream

by David Beaulieu January 15, 2021

Discover 6 crazy facts about Edvard Munch’s most famous painting.

Discover 6 crazy facts about Edvard Munch’s

most famous painting.

The four versions of the work.

The four versions of the work.

Did You Know?

Not one, but four! There are actually four versions of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s famous piece: a pastel and a painted version created in 1893, followed by another pastel version two years later and finally, a version using tempera paint (a medium usually consisting of coloured pigments and a binding agent, such as egg yolk) in 1910.

The original name is not The Scream . The original German title given by Munch to his work was Der Schrei der Natur ( The Scream of Nature ), and the Norwegian title is Skrik ( Shriek ).

Stolen once. On the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer (France), thieves placed a ladder up to the window of the National Gallery in Oslo, slunk inside, and made off with the 1893 painted version of The Scream (the famous one). They were so pleased with the ease of this crime that they added insult to robbery, leaving a note that read, "Thanks for the poor security." Thankfully, the painting was recovered within three months.

Stolen twice. The 1910 tempera on cardboard version was stolen on August 22, 2004, in broad daylight , when masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo. In addition to stealing The Scream , they also took Munch's Madonna . On August 31, 2006, Norwegian police announced that a police operation had recovered both The Scream and Madonna, but did not reveal detailed circumstances of the recovery. The paintings were said to be in a better-than-expected condition.

Going, going, gone! The third version of the work, a pastel on cardboard, sold for US $120 million at auction in 2012.

Like scary movies? You might just recognize the mask of the killer in Wes Craven’s movie, Scream , inspired by none other than the scariest Scream of all by Edvard Munch.