Police Hold Man In Scream Theft

Police made their first arrest yesterday in last year's theft of the iconic painting The Scream and expressed hope of recovering the 1893 masterpiece by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. The Scream and another Munch painting Madonna were stolen by armed robbers in a daytime raid on an Oslo art museum in August in front of dozens of tourists. The pictures are still missing, but Oslo police said in a statement that the arrest could lead to their recovery. The man in his 30s was arrested in Oslo and charged as an accessory to the crime, police said. They declined to identify him further or say how he was thought to be involved. Two masked robbers ran into the Munch Museum on August 22, threatened staff with a handgun and forced people to lie down before yanking the pictures off the wall and walking out the front door to a get-away car that was found the same day. Irish Art