Art thief and footballer, Pål Enger--famous for stealing Edvard Munch's The Scream--died in Oslo on June 29. He was 57.
Enger was described as "very talented" on the field, playing for Vålerenga Fotball in the 1980s, and Mercantile in 1991. Former Vålerenga manager Dag Vestlund remembered Enger as "small, quick, tough," adding: "I liked him a lot. He was always very well behaved in my dealings with him. Always polite, very humble."
. He first tried to steal Munch's famous painting in 1988. With his friend Bjorn Grytdal, he broke into Oslo's National Gallery, but, due to a miscalculation, landed in front of another Munch painting: Love and Pain. They stole that instead. Initially disappointed, Enger and Grytdal hid the painting in the ceiling of a pool hall that Enger had bought. The place was frequented by off-duty policemen, and the friends let them play for free, just for the thrill of knowing that the officers were unwittingly playing pool one meter under the stolen artwork.
Grytdal shared the story with a neighbor, who turned out to be a confidential informant. Enger was arrested, and sentenced to three years in prison.
In 1994, he tried to steal The Scream again. He timed the heist to coincide with the opening of that year's Winter Olympics, when police forces were concentrated at the ceremony venue in Lillehammer. He enlisted the help of two homeless men who broke in through a window, stole the painting, and escaped, all within 50 seconds. The heist was caught on security cameras, although the footage was blurry.
Enger was arrested a few months later, when he tried to sell The Scream. The buyer, it turned out, was an officer from Scotland Yard, and Enger was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison.
He was arrested several more times after that. During one prison stint in 2007, he started painting himself, and opened his own exhibition four years later.
Eneger's one-time lawyer, Nils Christian Nordhu, believes his crimes would not darken his legacy. Instead, he called Enger a "gentleman" who would be missed.
