Norway's most notorious art thief dead

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Norway's most notorious art thief dead
Photo: Terje Pedersen/NTB/TT

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Norway's largest art thief over the years - Pål Enger - is dead. He became most famous for stealing "The Scream" which hung at the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994, according to the newspaper Dagbladet.

Pål Enger began his career as a football player at the elite level, but it was as an art thief that he received the most attention.

In 1988, he stole the work "Vampire" by artist Edvard Munch from the Munch Museum on Tøyen in Oslo. But it was the theft of the national treasure "The Scream", also by Edvard Munch, at the National Gallery that became a world news story. The work was recovered shortly afterwards, and Enger was sentenced to six years in prison.

In 2016, he was also convicted of stealing 15 paintings by, among others, Hariton Pushwagner, which Enger denied and eventually had his prison sentence reduced.

During his prison sentences, Pål Enger began to paint himself. He was 57 years old, his family tells the newspaper.

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By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for local and international readers

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