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The recovery of The Scream and Madonna by Stensrud and his department on August 31 last year made as many headlines around the world as did the original theft. What didn't get much publicity was the discovery, when museum technical staff looked at the paintings, that early reports of their condition had been optimistic. The paintings won't go back on view until later this year because there is damage to be repaired, and sadly, in the case of The Scream, some that cannot be repaired. This damage tells a brutal story. The Scream, painted on cardboard, "has been wet. The lower part of the left of the figure has got damp. This water or something else has come from the outside; maybe they were wrapped in something wet?" There are some tears in the Madonna - these are "reparable".

As Ydstie says, "It has not been a sophisticated crime." Looking at The Scream now, it is shockingly clear that the damage was caused by carelessness and neglect. A huge watery stain, like a watermark on a tea bag, seeps over its bottom left-hand corner, on the walkway and even on the lower part of the figure. Pigment has dissolved or been washed away.

Why would anyone let that happen? It had to be because the painting didn't interest them at all. Neither in the drag racer's bus nor wherever it went after that did anyone even bother to look at The Scream. It was wrapped in a damp blanket and forgotten about.

The Stavanger gang needed what Sicilians call an "illustrious corpse" to distract attention from the one in Stavanger. What could be more spectacular than stealing The Scream? After all, it caused a sensation when the other version of Munch's picture was stolen from Oslo's National Gallery in 1994 and recovered in a sting operation. Stealing the Munch Museum version proved an even bigger story. And that was the point.

The solution to this crime lay in the Munch Museum all along. Ydstie takes me behind the scenes, along a cool glassed corridor to the museum's research library. She shows me their collection of Scream artefacts from around the world: cartoons of George W Bush making the screamer scream, political badges featuring The Scream on behalf of various causes, T-shirts and inflatables, and a Scream boxing doll. The star exhibit is a howling, white-faced Halloween mask as featured in the Scream horror films. What the criminals stole was not even a work of art in their eyes, but simply, with its big eyes and open mouth, and hands like paws over its skull cheeks, the most famous face in Norway.

Related articles
03.05.2006: Three jailed for theft of The Scream
14.09.2005: Five art students visit scene of The Scream
14.03.2005: The Norwegian hotel where Munch's works are lobby art
03.08.2005: Munch fakes foil thieves
08.03.2005: Stolen Munch works recovered
23.08.2004: Tourists see Munch's Scream stolen
10.12.2003: Stratospheric echo locates Munch's Scream

Useful links
Royal Academy: Edvard Munch By Himself exhibition
Munch museum, Norway

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/