Crimes: A former soccer player stole Huuto in 50 seconds

From a Norwegian From Pål Enger could have become a good professional soccer player, but his connections with a criminal group and fascination with art theft took the win.

Enger was born on March 26, 1967 in Oslo to a working-class family. They lived in Tveita, a neighborhood known for poverty, where crime and drugs were also rampant. His mother suffered from alcoholism. The stepfather subjected Enger to both physical and psychological violence.

Enger drew attention to Tveita’s juvenile delinquents in a special way: he bravely climbed the walls of a tall building.

On Enger is said to have been a great attraction, among other things Francis Ford Coppolan Godfatherto the movies. At the age of 15, he even traveled with a friend to New York’s Little Italy to marvel at movie locations.

Enger had an even greater interest Edward Munchin Call-painting, which he saw for the first time when he was 8 years old. He is said to have been watching Huuto twice a week for more than a decade, says, among other things The Telegraph.

Screaming became an obsession for him.

More important than the Godfather movies or the Huuto painting for Enger, however, was the fact that he was fascinated by the streets and joining the Tveita gang, a group of young street criminals, running in the shopping center.

Enger participated in robberies and thefts and received his first suspended sentence at the age of 16 in 1983.

Eels was also interested in football so much that he had time to taste the everyday life of a professional football player. At the age of 19, Enger joined Oslo-based Vålerenga in 1986, where he was able to play a few minutes both in the Norwegian premier league and in one UEFA Cup match.

Enger was considered a young talent who got some sort of order in his life from football training.

As he became more and more entangled in the criminal underworld, his prospects for playing professional football began to fade. And they were lost in one fell swoop: he received his first prison sentence in the fall of 1986.

Enger’s teammates had been paying attention to his antics before he went to jail. On top of that, there was a policeman playing in Vålerenga.

A prison sentence after Enger headed even further away from the narrow road. He committed all kinds of crimes to finance his extravagant lifestyle – for example, drug dealing and jewel robberies.

On February 23, 1988, Enger committed his first major art theft with his long-term partner in crime Bjørn Grytdalin with.

The purpose was to steal what Enger admired Call-painting from the Munch Museum in Oslo. At that gig, the duo made a misjudgment.

They climbed the ladder to the first floor, broke in through the window and ended up in a room where there was another work by Edvard Munch, Love and pain (also known as Vampire). It’s an oil painting from 1895. The vampire set off for the duo.

The work was found the same year (1988) after Enger had been arrested for his other crimes. Enger received a prison sentence and sat inside a stone for three years.

After his release, Enger tried to play football for a while. He joined Mercantile, who play in the third division. Although he was in good shape, playing did not materialize anymore. And the status of a promising player no longer suited him.

Enger then turned to a life of crime.

About the eel became a worldwide celebrity in 1994.

February 12 was the opening day of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Enger then made a 50-second dash with his partner to Oslo’s National Gallery, which is a different museum than the Munch Museum – there are four different versions of The Scream.

The theft was captured on surveillance camera video.

This time there was no misjudgment, as the act had been planned for a long time – already during Enger’s 1988 prison sentence. The two climbed to the second floor of the National Gallery, broke the window and took Huuto out of its frames. At the time, the value of the auction was estimated at 55 million dollars.

The two left behind a postcard with the text: “Thanks for the lousy security measures.”

Enger handed over the work to his accomplice Grytdal for sale. The painting was recovered undamaged on May 7, 1994, in an operation by Norwegian and British police, where the thieves tried to sell the work to undercover buyers.

Enger received a prison sentence of more than six years. At the time, it was the longest sentence ever handed down in Norway for theft.

After his release from prison, Enger continued to commit crimes in the late 1990s and 2000s. Enger escaped from prison in 1999. After the beatings, the man was arrested for attracting attention with his sunglasses late at night.

Engerin the interest in paintings was not only related to stealing.

He started painting in prison in 2007. At first, Enger painted animals, later abstract works. The first exhibition of his paintings was organized in 2011.

Although Enger started painting, he didn’t stop committing crimes: in 2015, he was caught stealing 17 paintings. According to the Norwegian media, Enger was arrested by the police when his wallet and ID were left at the scene of the crime in an Oslo gallery.

Enger died on June 29, 2024. He was 57 years old. The cause of death has not been released, but he had health problems. Enger had no unsolved criminal cases and had not been in prison for years.

Enger’s former lawyer Nils Christian Nordhus described Enger as a “gentleman thief” who was missed by many in Norway.

Sources: VG, news agency AP, The Telegraph and Dafbladet.

Correction 25.12.2025 at 13:51: Corrected errors in the names of Enger and Munch. Enger’s last name was misspelled in the introduction and Munch’s last name was misspelled at the beginning of the bread text.