National Gallery of Norway

The National Gallery in Oslo was Norway's first public art museum, opened in 1842 in a columned building in the city centre, and for a century and a half it was where Norwegians went to see their own art. Above all it was the home of Edvard Munch, and for decades the best-known painted version of The Scream hung on its walls.

That painting made headlines in 1994. On the morning the Winter Olympics opened at Lillehammer, thieves put a ladder to a gallery window, climbed in, and were gone with The Scream in under a minute, leaving a note that mocked the security. It was recovered a few months later in a police sting.

In 2019 the gallery closed and its collection moved to the new National Museum on the waterfront, where the Munch pictures now hang. The old building is being kept for exhibitions.