Munch Museum

Munch Museum (Norwegian: Munch-museet) is an art museum in Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.[1]

Munch Museum entrance

History
Munch Museum, Tøyen, Oslo, Norway.
architects: Einar Myklebust and Gunnar Fougner

Munch Museum is situated at Tøyen in the Oslo borough of Gamle Oslo. Construction of the museum was financed from the profits generated by the Oslo municipal cinemas and opened its doors in 1963 to commemorate what would have been Munch's 100th birthday. Its collection consists of works and articles by Munch, which he donated to the municipality of Oslo upon his death, and additional works donated by his sister Inger Munch, as well as various other works obtained through trades of including duplicate prints.[2]

The museum now has in its permanent collection well over half of the artist's entire production of paintings and at least one copy of all his prints. This amounts to over 1,200 paintings, 18,000 prints, six sculptures, as well as 500 plates, 2,240 books, and various other items. The museum also contains educational and conservation sections, and has facilities for the performing arts.[3]

The museum structure was designed by architects Einar Myklebust and Gunnar Fougner. Myklebust also played an important role in the expansion and renovation of the museum in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of Munch's death. This site has also been the location of filming for an Olsenbanden-movie from 1984.[4][5]

Theft of The Scream
The 1910 version of Munch's The Scream is on exhibit in the museum
Further information: The Scream § Thefts

On Sunday, 22 August 2004, two paintings by Munch, The Scream and Madonna, were stolen from the Munch Museum by masked men wielding firearms. The robbers forced the museum guards to lie down on the floor while they snapped the cable securing the paintings to the wall and escaped in a black Audi A6 station wagon, which police later found abandoned. The paintings were recovered by Oslo Police on 31 August 2006.[6]

Munch Museum in Bjørvika
Construction site of the MUNCH Museum at Bjørvika, December 2020

In 2008, the City of Oslo promoted an architectural competition for a new Munch Museum in the area of Bjørvika, a new urban development where the Oslo Opera House is also located. The competition was won in 2009 by Spanish architect Juan Herreros and his studio Herreros Arquitectos (now estudio Herreros).[7][8][9]

Before the local election in Oslo in 2011, the Oslo Progress Party decided that they would no longer support the project due to economic concerns. After the election, in December 2011, the Oslo City Council voted to end the project. Instead the council wanted to consider improving the current museum or moving the collection to Nasjonalgalleriet.[10][11]

In May 2013, the Oslo City Council finally took the decision to revive the project, and move the museum to its new site on the waterfront, next to the Oslo Opera House. Construction started during September 2015, with the new museum expected to be completed during 2019 and scheduled to open to the public by 2020.[12][13]

References
  1. Munch Museum (Oslo Norway Tourist Information and Travel Guide) Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Annette Faltin. Munch-museet (Store norske leksikon)
  3. Munch Museum (artnoir) Archived 2010-11-23 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Elisabeth Seip. "Einar Myklebust". Norsk kunstnerleksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  5. Elisabeth Seip. "Gunnar Fougner". Norsk kunstnerleksikon. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  6. Munch museum to improve security (Det Norske Veritas) Archived 2012-07-28 at Archive.today
  7. "Juan Herreros". Columbia GSAPP. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  8. "Majority Cheers New Munch Museum". 29 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  9. Munch Museum and Deichman Library in Oslo competition results ArcDaily, March 27, 2009. Retrieved November 30, 2012
  10. Oslo bystyre vraker Lambda VG, December 14, 2011 (in Norwegian)
  11. Saleha Mohsin: They All Scream for Edvard Munch, but Oslo Can't Satisfy Demand Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2012
  12. "Majority Cheers New Munch Museum". 29 May 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  13. "About the Munch Museum". Munch Museum. Retrieved September 1, 2017.

Other sources
  • Eggum, Arne; Gerd Woll, Marit Lande Munch At The Munch Museum (Scala Publishers, 2005)
  • Langaard, Johan H. Edvard Munch: Masterpieces from the artist's collection in the Munch Museum in Oslo (McGraw-Hill. 1964)
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