The Scream. The Story of an Image

The Scream – The Story of an Image tells the entire story of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece, which, along with Mona Lisa, is perhaps the world’s most famous painting. From the time the picture was first exhibited in Berlin in 1893 until the time it was stolen for the second time from Oslo’s Munch Museum in 2004, Scream has led a turbulent life marked by scandals and abusive criticism, parodies and re-interpretations, objective debates and bitter conflicts. The story of the origin, interpretation, ownership, and burglary of Munch’s various takes on the Scream theme is fascinating. The pictures have served as sources of inspiration and of income. All in all, Munch’s Scream has accomplished what only a handful of other images have ever succeeded in doing: it has taken the leap out of art history and into society at large.