The head of a bust portraying Norwegian artist Edvard Munch located near his grave in Oslo had its head cut off and stolen, police said Thursday.

The bust by Norwegian sculptor Arne Durban of Norway's best known artist was placed on the so-called Honor Ground of Our Savior's Cemetery in 1992 by friends of the Munch Museum in Oslo.

"We don't know the exact time of the theft, but that it was sometime between Monday and today," police inspector Britt Togba of the Oslo police said Thursday. She said they were seeking evidence at the scene, and tips from the public.

Munch's body is interred in a nondescript nearby tomb in one of the city's oldest graveyards that dates back to 1808. Norwegian writers Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who won the 1903 Nobel Literature Prize, are buried a few meters away.

So far, no trace has been found of the paintings stolen in the Aug. 22 armed robbery.

Via Aftenposten News in English.

Art and Culture [09:42]