Completed on 23-02-1948, Ekely i Ullern (today: Oslo, Norway)
Edvard Munch’s Will
Location of Original: The National Archives of Norway – Regional State Archive of Oslo
About the Document
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) is one of Modernism's most significant artists, world-renowned for his painting The Scream. This document is his will, created in 1940.
Munch’s career as an artist saw him move away from naturalism and an accurate record of objects, instead seeking personal representations to express the mental life of modern man. Influenced by the symbolist movement, Munch later went on to become a pioneer of expressionist art.
His will of April 18, 1940 left the majority of his works to the City of Oslo: 1.100 paintings, 18.000 graphic works, 4.500 watercolours and drawings, six sculptures, countless letters and other correspondence.
This will, which annulled all previous wills, was drawn up just nine days after Nazi troops invaded Norway, and stipulated: “The Municipality of Oslo inherits my remaining artworks, drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, intaglio prints, together with the woodcut blocks, lithographic stones, and the engraved copper plates. Prints must not be pulled from my lithographic stones, woodblocks or copper plates. Only 10 – ten – impressions of each of my remaining graphic works may be sold.”
In the testament, he explains how his wealth, artwork and literary works should be distributed and managed. It led to the establishment of the Munch Museum in Oslo, a national art museum that was finally opened in 1963.