Offer Is Made to Return 'Scream' Painting

OSLO, Norway, March 3 (AP) – A lawyer connected with opponents of abortion said today that one of his clients would arrange the return of "The Scream," the Edvard Munch painting, in exchange for $1 million.
A statement on national radio by the lawyer, Tor Erling Staff, was the second time that Norway’s small anti-abortion movement has been linked to the theft of the painting last month.
Mr. Staff said he had faxed the client’s demands to Culture Minister Ase Kleveland on Wednesday.
"The man who contacted me is not the thief, but someone who has the possibility to produce the painting," he said.
Mr. Staff is a well-known lawyer whose large clientele includes members of the anti-abortion movement. He filed a court appeal in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the deportation of 12 American anti-abortion campaigners on Feb. 11, the day before the painting was stolen from the National Museum.
On Feb. 17, the Rev. Borre Knudsen, a Lutheran minister, who has invited the American campaigners to demonstrate at the Winter Olympic Games, said on radio that the painting would be returned if national television broadcast "The Silent Scream," a film showing a fetus being aborted.
The police have expressed little public interest in the statements by the minister and Mr. Staff.

New York Times. Mar 4, 1994. p B2(N), p A12(L), col 4.

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