The "It could only have been painted by a madman" belonging to the famous painting "The Scream" (1893) was written by Edvard Munch himself, as revealed by a Norwegian study.

The discovery was revealed by the National Museum in Oslo, where one of the most notorious doubts in the art world could be revealed.

The sentence written in pencil on the box has puzzled historians for several decades, but after years of speculation the curators of the National Museum of Norway (Norway national museum) have confirmed that the small and barely visible inscription on the famous canvas was written by the artist himself.

Picture, one of the best known in the world, has become a radical and timeless expression of human anxiety.

Munch, Norwegian painter and printmaker, was influenced by the early symbolism of the late 19th century and impressionism, and gravitated on German Expressionism of the early 20th century.

On the other hand, the artist painted four other versions of “The Scream” -his best known work- in addition to the original of 1893, being the later version of 1910 one of the most famous, as reflected by the British media The Guardian.

In preparation for the installation of the painting in the new building of the National Museum of Norway, which will open in 2022 in Oslo, An exhaustive research and conservation work was dedicated to the work.

The curators paid special attention to the inscription written in pencil located in the upper left corner of the painting with the legend “Can only have been painted by a madman” (“It could only have been painted by a madman”), which was added to the painting after it was finished.

The legend was discovered in 1904 and is believed to have been made in 1895. His presence was a mystery. It was not known whether it was an act of vandalism carried out by an outraged spectator or by the artist himself, highlights museum information.

The curators used infrared to analyze the writing, which was compared to notes and letters from Munch, and took into account the events surrounding the first public exhibition, what led them to solve the mystery.

“Writing is, definitely, of Munch. Both the writing itself and the events that occurred in 1895, when Munch showed the painting in Norway for the first time, they point in the same direction”, assured the curator of the museum, Mai Britt Guleng.

“According to the study, the catalyst for the inscription in ‘El grito’ it was an incident that occurred in 1895, when Munch first exhibited the painting in his native Kristiania (currently Oslo). The work sparked furious criticism and public speculation about the artist's state of mind..