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