\n
\tNorwegian former football player and notorious art thief P\u00e5l Enger has died at the age of 57. Enger was famous for stealing an Edvard Munch painting in 1994. The Scream<\/em>Engel, who played for the club as a teenager, died Saturday night, a press officer for the club told The Associated Press. The cause of Engel’s death was not immediately clear, but the Norwegian newspaper Daily newspaper <\/em>He reportedly died in Oslo.<\/p>\n \n \tObsessed with the Mafia, Engel was first jailed when he was 19, having just made his professional football debut for Valerenga. In 1988, he embarked on a series of art and jewellery thefts, including a semi-failed heist The Scream <\/em>From the National Gallery, Oslo. Having miscalculated the painting’s location in the museum, Engel stole another of Munch’s paintings, Love and pain <\/em>(1895), erroneously referred to as vampire.<\/em><\/p>\n \t\trelated articles<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n \tIn a 2023 documentary about Engel\u2019s life, The one who stole the scream<\/em>He said the misjudgment led to “disappointment [that] It went on for days.\u201d But the dangers involved and the process of hiding the work from the police \u201cstarted to get interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n \n \tEngel was sentenced to four years in prison for the theft\u2014but that wasn\u2019t enough to disabuse him of the idea of \u200b\u200bbecoming a world-famous art thief.<\/p>\n \n \tHis most famous theft occurred on the opening day of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, when he stole The Scream<\/em> From the National Gallery in Oslo. The painting, then valued at $55 million, was recovered intact after Engel admitted to hiding it in a secret compartment in his home.<\/p>\n \n \tOver the years, Engel has been convicted of numerous thefts of art and drugs and continues to attract media attention. In 1999, he escaped from a minimum security prison and gave interviews to news and television stations while on the run, much to the chagrin of police. He was later arrested again for “wearing sunglasses late at night to attract attention.” He began painting while in prison in 2007 and made his debut in 2011 with a series of abstract paintings that were exhibited at a gallery in Norway.<\/p>\n \n \tDespite his passion for art, Engel continued his criminal activities. In 2015, he was arrested and charged with stealing 17 paintings from an Oslo gallery after leaving his wallet and ID card at the crime scene. His former lawyer, Nils Christian Nordhu, described his Daily newspaper<\/em> He will be missed as a \u201cgentleman\u201d thief. (Engle, who never married, claimed to have four children with four women in four different countries.)<\/p>\n \n \tAccording to the Associated Press, Svein Graff of Valerenga football team reflected on Engel’s potential as a football player and recalled that Engel once said: “Although he is not the best football player, he is the best criminal, so this is the path he chose.” <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
![\"NEW](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-1462276159.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\")
<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n