Clustered
around the head of the 68-mile-long Oslofjord, Oslo is probably the most
spacious city in the world. Its 175-square-mile metropolitan area
consists of over 75 percent forests and five percent water. Its fine
deep harbor, Pipervika, stretches into the heart of the city and from it
leave ferries to Denmark and Germany.
Version of Munich's "The Scream" Stolen by Bob Brooke
According
to the Reuters News Service, armed robbers stole masterpieces by
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch from a museum in Oslo on Sunday, August
22, 2004 around 5 A.M. A version of his famous painting "The
Scream," " a picture featuring a waif-like figure on a bridge,
was supposedly part of the take.
Norwegian national radio NRK said the paintings
stolen from the Munch Museum included a version of the famous portrait
of modern angst, and a version of another key work, "Madonna."
"I can confirm that there has been a
robbery," an official at the Munch Museum said. Police declined to
comment and the museum wouldn’t disclose which paintings were stolen.
Thieves stole another, and perhaps
better-known, version of "The Scream" from Norway's National
Gallery in a break-in on February 1994, on the opening day of the Winter
Olympics in Lillehammer. It was retrieved several months later and
remains in that gallery.
Munch, who lived from 1863 to 1944 and who was
a pioneer of modern expressionism, made several copies of his key works,
including "The Scream."
Every year about 95 000 people die in
Sweden and, according to the law, everyone must be buried. There must be
room for everyone in the cemeteries, therefore the future needs of space
have to be predicted. Because of this funerals must be part of the
planning process.
In
the early Middle Ages, driven by famine at home and the promise of
wealth to be had in other lands, the Vikings set out from Scandinavia to
conquer parts of England, Ireland, France, Russia, and even Turkey.
Bolstered by their successes, the Vikings pushed westward, eventually
crossing the North Atlantic and founding settlements in Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland in Canada. Read
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