Dead man's tale casts new light on Munch heist

A 27-year-old man who died this month is believed to be one of three masked gunmen who snatched the Edvard Munch paintings The Scream and Madonna from an Oslo museum in August 2004.

The same man is reported to have led police tobelieve the daring daylight heist was linked to an earlier robbery in which a police officer was shot.

He may also have unwittingly informed on the mastermind behind both jobs after he was befriended by an undercover officer and secretly recorded.

The man, whose name is being withheld, died of a suspected heroin overdosein an Oslohospice Nov. 3.

A pending final autopsy report will help authorities determine if the death was the result of foul play.

"We have no comment on who it is, because the case involving this person is still being investigated because he recently died," said Oslo police Insp. Iver Stensrud.

The man is reported to have confessed his role in the Munch heist on tape while in conversation with an undercover officer. He is believed to have died without knowing he'd become an informant.

The paintings were stolen in a daring daytime raid in full view of gallery staff and visitors. Three masked men rushed in and snatched them off the wall of the MunchMuseum in Oslo.

The Scream and the Madonna were recovered by police in August, but police have never said what led them to the paintings after two years of searching.

The paintings suffered minor damage and are undergoing repair at the Munch Museum.

The Scream, probably the Norwegian painter's most famous work, shows a figure covering his or her ears in anguish, mouth open as if screaming. Madonna is a figure of a woman.

Police arrested six people in connection with the art theft, but only three were convicted.

Norwegian newspapers say evidence from the man who died links the heist with an earlier robbery of the Norwegian Cash Service, NOKAS, believed to have been masterminded by a man called David Toska.

They report the man told his police contact that Toska had planned the art theft to deflect police attention from the investigation into the NOKAS robbery, which resulted in the shooting death of a policeman.