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Some 5,500 people visited the Munch Museum in Oslo last week to view "The Scream" and "Madonna" -- damaged in a daring 2004 robbery and recovered in August -- before they undergo repairs, the museum said on Monday.
"About 5,500 people in five days, that's more visitors than for the whole month of September 2005" when the two masterpieces were still missing, museum spokeswoman Jorunn Christoffersen told AFP.
The Munch Museum decided to put the damaged artworks on display for a brief showing last week due to the heightened public interest. They were exhibited in special glass showcases, lying down without their frames.
The bottom left corner of "The Scream" was crumpled as if it had received a blow, while "Madonna" had one scratch and one tear that pierced the canvas.
The paintings will now be removed for conservation efforts that are expected to take about a year.
The two paintings, worth about 100 million dollars in total, were stolen from the Munch Museum on August 22, 2004.
Two masked and armed men burst into the museum in broad daylight and tore the paintings from the walls, disappearing in a getaway car.
The two thieves who made off with the paintings have never been convicted, but three of their accomplices were sentenced earlier this year to prison sentences of four to eight years.
Police recovered the paintings on August 31 in circumstances that remain shrouded in mystery, and the whereabouts of the artworks during the two years is not known.
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AFPEntertainment-Norway-art-crime-Munch
AFP 021042 GMT 10 06
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