The Scream: A stolen masterpiece

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was stolen in 1994, an undercover operation was launched to get it back.

Thirty years on from its recovery, hear from the art detective at the centre of the story.

In 2013, Charley Hill told Lucy Burns how his task saw him take on a fake identity, rub shoulders with criminals and encounter the Thai kickboxing champion of Scandinavia.

(Photo: The Scream on display in Oslo in 2008, after being stolen for a second time. Credit: Scanpix Norway/AFP/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:37.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:45.0	And now for a story involving a cunning undercover operation,
0:50.0	a pretend Californian wide boy, and the Thai kickboxing champion of Scandinavia.
0:56.4	It's 30 years since a famous painting called The Scream was recovered
1:01.0	three months after being stolen.
1:03.0	In 2013 Lucy Burns spoke to Charlie Hill,
1:07.0	the art detective who assumed a fake identity to track the painting down.
1:12.0	It's half past six on a February morning in 1994.
1:16.0	Two thieves are breaking into the Norwegian National Gallery.
1:20.0	They're after one of the most famous paintings in the world.
1:23.0	One of the world's best known expressionist paintings,
1:31.0	The Scream by Edward Munch, has been stolen from Norway's National Gallery in
1:35.8	Oslo.
1:36.8	The loss of the priceless painting impossible to sell on the open market has been called a national
1:42.0	tragedy. It was also a national tragedy.
1:43.4	It was also a national embarrassment.
	...

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