Drastic changes to Scream museum

The robbers made off in daylight

The Munch Museum in Oslo could be shut until next summer while it introduces drastic security measures after the theft of its most famous painting.

Security at the museum was criticised after armed robbers stole a version of Edvard Munch's The Scream in August.

They also took the Norwegian painter's famous Madonna. Both are still missing.

A report recommends up to 5m kroner ($790,000) be spent on changes, including a labyrinth, an outside guard post and glass frames bolted to the walls.

No alarm

"It was not pleasant reading," Anette Wiig Bryn, Oslo city councillor for culture, said of the report.

The museum has been closed since the robbery in August.

Nothing has been heard of The Scream since it disappeared

Masked men carried out the raid in daylight in full view of visitors. One of the men is said to have threatened staff with a pistol.

The men cut the wires attached to the pictures. That set off an alarm in a local police station but not in the gallery itself.

The thieves walked out of the front door and drove off in a waiting car.

"National and international art icons must be shielded using glass bolted onto the wall," said security project manager Mona Solem.

"The remaining pictures must be fastened onto the wall or made so heavy that they are difficult to run away with."

The report also suggested metal detectors, a surveillance control room, a labyrinth to delay possible robbers and an automatic gate to lock them in.