MUNCH Museum Oslo: The Scream & so much more

MUNCH holds around 27,000 works by Edvard Munch, making it the largest collection of his art anywhere. The building is a 13-storey tower on the Bjørvika waterfront that locals call "Lambda", and opinions on the exterior range from love to genuine hostility. The inside is a different story. You move upward through the collection by escalator, floor by floor, with the fjord appearing through the windows at intervals as you climb.

The Scream

MUNCH has three versions of The Scream: a painting, a pastel drawing, and a lithograph. Because they're all on cardboard or paper, they're too fragile to stay out permanently, so the museum rotates them throughout the day. One version goes on display for about 60 minutes, then the shutters close and the next one comes out. You'll find them on the 4th floor in the Edvard Munch Infinite exhibition. 

If you arrive more than two hours before closing, you can see all three by visiting the room, exploring another floor, and coming back for the next rotation. There's a small crowd surge every time the shutters open, but it settles within a few minutes.

The version most people picture when they think of The Scream, the 1893 oil painting with the orange swirling sky, is not here. It's at the National Museum across town. If seeing that specific painting matters to you, go there instead or as well. MUNCH's versions are the 1910 painting (tempera on cardboard), a pastel drawing, and the lithograph prints.

The Rest of the Collection

The Scream gets most of the attention, but Munch spent decades producing work that goes well beyond that single image. The collection is organised thematically across the floors, covering his recurring subjects of anxiety, love, death, and isolation. Madonna, The Dance of Life, and Vampire are all here, along with self-portraits spanning most of his adult life. There are also rooms that recreate his home and studio at Ekely, which give you a sense of how he actually worked.

Practical Details

There's airport-style security at the entrance with bag scanners. Anything larger than about 40 × 35 × 10 cm has to go in the free lockers in the basement, which use a QR code system on your phone. Don't bring a large backpack unless you're happy to stow it.

Bistro Tolvte on the 12th floor and the Kranen rooftop bar on the 13th both have fjord views. The bar takes walk-ins but expect a wait on warm evenings.