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Famed Painting ‘The Scream’ Targeted by Climate Activists

People look at Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, Sunday Jan. 13, 2019. (AP)
People look at Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, Sunday Jan. 13, 2019. (AP)
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Famed Painting ‘The Scream’ Targeted by Climate Activists

People look at Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, Sunday Jan. 13, 2019. (AP)
People look at Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, Sunday Jan. 13, 2019. (AP)

Norwegian police said two climate activists tried in vain Friday to glue themselves to Edvard Munch’s 1893 masterpiece "The Scream" at an Oslo museum and no harm was reported to the painting of a waif-like figure appearing to scream.

Police said they were alerted by the National Museum of Norway and had three people under their "control." A third person filmed the pair that tried to affix to the painting, Norwegian news agency NTB said.

The museum said that the room where the glass-protected painting is exhibited "was emptied of the public and closed," and will reopen as soon as possible. The rest of museum remained open.

Police said there was glue residue on the glass mount.

A video of the incident showed museum guards holding two activists, with one shouting "I scream for people dying." Another shouted "I scream when lawmakers ignore science" as someone shielded "The Scream."

Environmental activists from the Norwegian organization "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 was the latest episode in which climate activists have targeted famous paintings in European museums.

"We are campaigning against ‘Scream’ because it is perhaps Norway’s most famous painting," Astrid Rem, a spokesperson for the Norwegian group, told The Associated Press. "There have been lots of similar actions around Europe. They have managed something that no other action has managed: achieve an extremely large amount of coverage and press."

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 wasn't damaged and was returned to its wall a day later.

Earlier this month, climate protesters threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in a German museum and a similar protest happened in London, where protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s "Sunflowers" at the National Gallery. In both those cases, the paintings also weren't damaged.

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UK Designer’s Long-lost Coat Found after 40 Years

Jean Pallant said she is ‘over the moon’ one of her long-lost designs was found in an Oxfam charity shop (Seb Durocher/Oxfam/PA)
Jean Pallant said she is ‘over the moon’ one of her long-lost designs was found in an Oxfam charity shop (Seb Durocher/Oxfam/PA)
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UK Designer’s Long-lost Coat Found after 40 Years

Jean Pallant said she is ‘over the moon’ one of her long-lost designs was found in an Oxfam charity shop (Seb Durocher/Oxfam/PA)
Jean Pallant said she is ‘over the moon’ one of her long-lost designs was found in an Oxfam charity shop (Seb Durocher/Oxfam/PA)

A British fashion designer has revealed one of her long-lost designs has been found in an Oxfam charity shop - nearly 40 years after it went missing from the designer’s warehouse, The Independent reported.

When designer Jean Pallant was told her one-of-a-kind coat had turned up in a donation bag at the Oxfam shop in Mill Hill, London, she was “very excited,” the newspaper said.

“I was absolutely over the moon, really. It was very sweet of the person who discovered it to believe that it was something important,” she was quoted as saying.

“It’s like seeing a child. It’s lovely. I know every single square inch of it, and I’m absolutely amazed that it looks so new, and it feels new. Everything about it looks exactly as it did when it went missing.”

Oxfam’s Mill Hill shop manager Marina Ikey-Botchway said she could tell the coat was a priceless item when the donation came in.

She made the discovery among a donation of high street fast fashion clothes.

“The very first second I saw the coat I knew this was something special, so I checked the label and after a quick Google found Jean’s email,” she said.

Pallant, who was part of the 1960s cultural revolution and one half of a husband-and-wife team, made the orange coat with large buttons on her kitchen table in 1988 and it featured in a Sunday Telegraph article that year.

When she went to retrieve some pieces from her warehouse nearly four decades ago, she felt “sick” to discover that the coat had gone missing along with five other pieces she had designed with her husband Martin, which still have not been found.

“It doesn’t look as if it’s ever been worn, so I’m thrilled about that as well. It doesn’t look like a rag. It doesn’t even smell of must, which is weird. I don’t know where it’s been for those years, but it’s obviously been well cared for,” said Pallant.