A Norwegian court has sentenced three men to between four and eight years in prison for their role in the theft of Edvard Munch’s iconic masterpiece The Scream.

Two of the men were also ordered to pay 750 million kroner (£67 million) in compensation to the city of Oslo, which owns both The Scream and another Munch painting stolen alongside it, Madonna. Almost two years after the theft, both pictures are still missing.

After a six-week trial, Björn Hoen, 37, was found guilty of planning the robbery, and sentenced to seven years in prison. Petter Tharaldsen, 34, who drove the getaway car, was jailed for eight years and Petter Rosenvinge, 38, was sentenced to four years.

Hoen and Tharaldsen were also ordered to pay the compensation for the two priceless masterpieces.

But three other men accused of involvement walked free from the court. Stian Skjold, 30, one of the alleged robbers, was acquitted, as were Morten Hugo Johansen, 39, accused of providing the getaway car, and Thomas Nataas, who had been tried for receiving stolen property.

The Scream and Madonna, both painted in 1891, belong to Munch’s Frieze of Life series, exploring sickness, death, anxiety and love. He painted four versions of The Scream.

The two paintings were taken on a Sunday morning in August 2004 when two masked men carrying Smith & Wesson Magnums walked into the museum, tackled four unarmed guards, ordered 80 visitors to lie on the floor and simply ripped the works, frames and all, off the wall.

They walked out and fled in a black Audi, which they sprayed with foam to obliterate fingerprints before transferring to another car. . Then they sprayed the Audi with foam to obliterate fingerprints, transferred to another car and disappeared.

Police believe that the brazen daylight robbery was ordered by a notorious crime boss to distract investigators from another multimillion-pound raid in which a policeman was killed.

The disappearance of Norway's most famous work of art caused deep angst. Terje Nyboe, the prosecutor, told the court that it was "an attack on Norwegian culture and Norwegian history".

After the theft, police launched Norway’s largest surveillance operation, tapping 70,000 phone calls, and eventually tracked the thieves to a farm, where the paintings were wrapped in a carpet on an abandoned bus.

Mr Skjold, who was acquitted, admitted to the court that he moved the paintings from the bus to the boot of a car belonging to someone whom he did not know. A covert police team witnessed the event, but did not realise what was happening until too late.

But, with the masterpieces too famous to sell to any but the most shady of collectors, speculation has mounted about the motive behind the raid.

Police believe it was done on the orders of David Toska, a former national chess competitor turned arms and drugs dealer. He is serving 19 years for masterminding a multimillion dollar raid in which a policeman was killed four months before the Munch theft.

The police think that while on the run he ordered the theft to divert their attention. They believe Toska knows the whereabouts of the painting and fear he might use the knowledge to negotiate a lighter sentence.

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