Was the theft of Munch’s “Scream” merely a diversion for another crime? The “gang needed what Sicilians call an ‘illustrious corpse’ to distract attention. What could be more spectacular than stealing The Scream? After all, it caused a sensation when the other version of Munch’s picture was stolen from Oslo’s National Gallery in 1994 and recovered in a sting operation. Stealing the Munch Museum version proved an even bigger story. And that was the point.”