Munch artwork stolen from Oslo gallery

Because it would be extremely difficult to resell it, we are not ruling out this was a hit ordered by someone - Lund said.

'Historien,' a rare lithograph by Edvard Munch worth 240,000 euros (356,000 dollars) was stolen in Oslo, police said Friday.

A man wearing "hip-hop clothes and a baseball cap" according to a witness, smashed the window of the Nyborg Kunst gallery in Oslo late Thursday and took the work of art, the head of the organised crime unit for Oslo police, John Roger Lund, told AFP.

Police found the thief's vehicle, which had been reported stolen 10 days before.

- This leads us to believe it was a well planned robbery - Lund said.

Several copies of 'Historien' (history in Norwegian) exist, but the stolen one was unique as it was hand-coloured by the pre-expressionist painter, who died in 1944.

The 57centimetre x 98cm work sold at auction in 2001 for 200,000 kroner, but is now believed to be worth two million kroner (240,000 euros/355,000 dollars).

- Because it would be extremely difficult to resell it, we are not ruling out this was a hit ordered by someone - Lund said.

The Norwegian's work artwork has been targeted before.

In 2004, two armed masked men burst into the Munch museum in Oslo in broad daylight and stole the "Scream" and the "Madonna" paintings before making off in a getaway car.

Ten years earlier, another version of the "Scream" was stolen from Oslo's national gallery on the same day as the opening of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

In each case the works were recovered.