Munch Museum opens in Oslo

A new museum, devoted to the work of Norwegian master Edvard Munch opens Friday in Oslo, bringing new attention to the depth of the painter known to most people by one painting, 'The Scream.'

The museum, at 280,000 square feet possibly the largest anywhere devoted to a single artist, replaces a smaller 'gloomy' museum that previously housed the works. More than 26,000 works, including one of the several versions of The Scream have been moved to the new waterfront site and many more will be on display than before.

The City of Oslo has such a large collection because it was the principal beneficiary of Munch's will when he died in 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Norway. The Nazis had designated his work as 'degenerate art,' leading Munch to make a last-minute change in his will, leaving the work to Oslo instead of to Norway itself because Norway was ruled at the time by Norwegian Nazi Vidkun Quisling as a German puppet.