OSLO, NORWAY.-The Munch Museum and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS have signed a sponsorship agreement where Idemitsu will support the Munch Museum with an amount of NOK 4 million over a period of two years for research. The research pertains to the paintings "Scream" and "Madonna" and for the conservation of the works, with the end result being an exhibition in 2008. For more on the actual restoration process.

The parent company, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Lt., which is an independent Japanese petroleum company, has already been a generous sponsor to the Munch Museum. In 1991 an agreement was signed by which the Munch Museum benefited approx. NOK 57 million towards the refurbishment of the original museum building as well as for the building of a large extension. As a return service the Munch Museum lent a substantial number of works for an exhibition in Japan. In addition to this the Munch Museum committed to lend three Munch paintings every year for a period of fifteen years to the Idemitsu Museum of Arts in Tokyo. The thirteenth selection of works for this circulating exhibition will be sent to Tokyo in autumn 2007. A separate Munch Exhibition - "The Decorative Projects" opens at the National Museum of Modern Art in Ueno, Tokyo in autumn. More on this here.

Idemitsu, as a subsidiary of Idemitsu Kosan, has benn present in the Norwegian section of the Continental Shelf since 1989. Idemitsu now wishes to strengthen its cultural profile by contributing financially to the research and conservation pertaining to "The Scream" and "Madonna".