(Helsinki) A talented Norwegian footballer turned famous art thief, who in 1994 pulled off the sensational theft of the famous painting The Scream Edvard Munch’s exhibition at the National Gallery in Oslo has died. Pål Enger was 57.
Tina Wulf, the press officer for Vålerenga Fotball, a prominent Oslo soccer club for which Enger played as a teenager, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he died Saturday night.
She was unable to provide information on the circumstances of his death, but said he had been in contact with Vålerenga earlier this summer. Citing family sources, Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet said Enger died in Oslo.
Enger served his first prison sentence at the age of 19, before beginning a long series of art and jewelry thefts in 1988, when he climbed through a window of the Munch Museum in Oslo and stole the painting Love and pain of the artist.
Even more spectacularly, on February 12, 1994, the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Enger managed to fly The Scream at the National Gallery.
During the 50-second robbery, caught on security camera, two thieves climbed a ladder, smashed a window and walked away with the painting, which was then estimated to be worth at least $55 million. They left a postcard that read: “Thanks for the bad security.”
News of the painting’s theft made headlines around the world, and after his capture, Enger became a national celebrity in Norway. His story has been the subject of documentaries and an international television series, including the documentary The Man Who Stole The Scream (The Man Who Stole The Scream) was released in 2023.
The painting was found intact after Enger confessed that he had hidden it in a secret compartment in a coffee table at his family’s home.
Over the decades, Enger was repeatedly convicted of art and other thefts, as well as drug offenses, and he continued to attract media attention. In 1999, he fled from a minimum-security prison and tormented police by showing up at a celebrity cafe in Oslo and giving interviews to television and newspapers. He was later arrested again after attracting attention by wearing sunglasses late at night.
During a stint in prison in 2007, he began painting himself, first animals and then abstract motifs. He made his debut as a professional artist in 2011 with a series of abstract paintings exhibited in a Norwegian gallery.
The self-confessed art enthusiast hasn’t stopped stealing, though. In 2015, Enger was accused of stealing a total of 17 paintings from a gallery in central Oslo. According to Norwegian media, police arrested him after he left his wallet and ID card at the scene.
His former lawyer, Nils Christian Nordhus, was quoted by Dagbladet as describing Enger as a “gentlemanly” thief who “many” will miss in his home country.
“Many people wonder how good a footballer Pål Enger could have become if he had stuck to his career,” said Svein Graff, CEO of Vålerenga Fotball, adding that Enger had replied that he was not the best football player, but he was the best criminal and had therefore chosen to follow that career.
“His connections with law enforcement were well known, and his teammate (Vålerenga) and police officer Knut Arild Løberg put him in a cage on several occasions,” Graff added.
Enger was not married, but he told the newspaper VG in 2011 that he had “four children with four different mothers from four countries.”