Demagogue

As a vision of a human loss and despair, The Scream has few equals. But Edvard Munch's iconic painting was the cause of unbridled celebration yesterday, after Norwegian police announced the recovery of the stolen masterpiece.

Some two years after the picture was stolen in an armed raid, along with another priceless Munch work, the paintings were returned largely unscathed and without payment of a reward.

Masked gunmen stole The Scream and the second work, Madonna, in a brazen daylight theft from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004.