ABOVE: Detail from Munch’s The Scream, a version of which was stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004. Six men went on trial in Oslo yesterday accused in the theft.

Six Norwegians pleaded not guilty of stealing Edvard Munch’s The Scream in Oslo on Tuesday. The painting was stolen in 2004 along with another Munch work, The Madonna and hasn’t been recovered. Investigators apparently feel that the paintings are still hidden somewhere in Norway, and there is currently a reward of 2 million Norwegian crowns offered for their return.

The spectacular daylight robbery of the Munch Museum was straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, with two masked men storming into the place with a gun and tearing the two works off the wall before making their getaway by car. Reuters says that there has been speculation among the Norwegian media that the theft was actually carried out to draw attention away from a larger, deadlier heist taking place elsewhere in the city. The six accused all entered their not-guilty pleas; if convicted, however, they face 17 years in jail, and prosecutors are pushing for compensation totaling 750 million crowns if the three judges presiding over the case find them guilty. That’s a lot of prison cigarettes…

LINK: Reuters > Six plead not guilty over “The Scream” art theft