What, I ask you, is going on with security at museums today? We live in a high-tech, high maintenance, world. We live in a place that’s chokka with CCTV cameras, ID passes and ever telling swipe cards. Hell, you can’t even log on to a website without a covert cookie following you around forevermore. So, why is it that works of art worth millions, are so easy to steal? In the dubious light of the Munch trial, which is due to commence in Oslo today, Sweden’s Strindberg Museum has been successfully targeted with the theft of August Strindberg’s ‘Night of Jealously’. This week the painting was ripped from the wall and stolen. The thief, we call him Mr. Audacious, then cruised out of the gallery, passed reception staff, who consequently ‘called security’. What? And security didn’t already know that painting had been lifted? The alarms hadn’t sounded? The other staff didn’t feel compelled to intervene as the low-fi crook legged it past the reception desk? Strindberg was predominantly a playwright and novelist. His paintings, on the other hand, are generally thought of as amateurish. Now, I’ll admit, I’m not wild about his work; however, ‘Night of Jealousy’ (left) breaks this mould because it is simply superb. It’s dark and devilish and filled with het-up emotion. It sums up its namesake and churns up a storm through its angry depiction of mental torment by way of the roaring elements. Legend has it that Strindberg gave the painting to his wife as an engagement present. The pair had been fairly, shall we say, active in their previous personas and it’s suggested that jealousies may have arisen during this time. Whatever the case, it’s a wicked painting. It’s just a damn shame the museum could keep their hands on it.
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