Activists fail in attempt to stick themselves to Scream painting in Oslo

Two people have tried – and failed – to glue themselves to Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece The Scream at an Oslo museum, Norwegian police said.

No harm was reported to the painting.

Police said officers were called to the National Museum of Norway yesterday and had three people under “control”.

A third person filmed the pair trying to stick themselves to the painting, Norwegian news agency NTB said.

The room where the glass-protected painting is exhibited was “emptied of the public and closed” and will reopen as soon as possible, the museum said.

Environmental activists from the Norwegian organisation Stopp oljeletinga – Norwegian for

Stop Oil Exploration – were behind the stunt, saying they “wanted to pressure lawmakers into stopping oil exploration”. Norway is a major producer of offshore oil and gas.

It is the latest episode in which climate activists have targeted paintings.

Two Belgian activists who targeted Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring in a Dutch museum in October were sentenced to two months in prison.

The painting was not damaged.

Earlier this month, climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum and in London, protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery. In both those cases, the paintings were not damaged.

MASTERPIECE: Edvard Munch’s The Scream was the target for activists at the National Museum of Norway, Oslo.