Thieves stole three minor works by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch from a hotel in southern Norway, adding to a list of missing art topped by his masterpiece "The Scream", police said on Monday. Armed with a crowbar, two men broke into the Refsnes Gods hotel and ripped a 1915 Munch watercolour, "Blue Dress", from the wall along with two lithographs - a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg.
The thieves ran off after a hotel receptionist surprised the two late on Sunday night. "Blue Dress", depicting a blonde woman, had been hanging in the hotel restaurant, which had just shut with the alarm not yet turned on.
"The biggest loss is 'Blue Dress'," hotel owner Widar Salbuvik told Reuters. He said the thieves seemed amateurish and that the three pictures were not among the most valuable in the collection of 400 works ranging from Munch to Andy Warhol.
"We are seeking more witnesses," police spokesman Paul Horne said. Police were hunting two dark-haired men in their early 20s.
The theft means that five Munch works are now missing after gunmen stole "The Scream", showing a terrified waif-like figure under a blood-red sky, and "Madonna" from Oslo's Munch Museum in front of dozens of tourists on August 22.
Police said it was too early to speculate about whether there was a link between the thefts. Art experts said the works stolen on Sunday were minor by comparison with "The Scream".
"This is not a national catastrophe," Knut Forsberg, managing director of Blomqvist art auctioneers in Oslo, told Reuters.
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