An Edvard Munch lithograph valued at £270,000 was stolen from an Oslo gallery in June, Norwegian police announced on Wednesday, only days after the theft of another precious work by the painter.

A unique hand-coloured lithography by Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch, which was stolen from an art dealership in Oslo

The theft of "Loesrivelsen II" (The Separation II), a black and white drawing of a man and a woman with their backs turned to each other, went missing from an Oslo gallery during a move, police said.

"For now we haven't got a suspect," said John Roger Lund, the chief of the Oslo police squad against organised crime.

Kept secret until now, police only confirmed the theft after the NRK network noticed that Loesrivelsen II figured on an Interpol list of art works being sought.

The theft is only the latest of a series of thefts of works by Munch (1863-1944), considered a precursor of Expressionism.

Last week, a thief smashed the window of another Oslo art gallery and made off with another lithograph, "Historien" (History), valued at £215,000. The work has not been found.

In August 2004, two major works "The Scream" and "The Madonna" worth an estimated $100 million between them were also snatched in broad daylight by armed masked men from the Munch museum in Oslo.

Ten years earlier another version of "The Scream" was stolen from Oslo's national art gallery on the same day as the Winter Olympics opened in Lillehammer.

In both cases the works were recovered.