Source: AFP August 22, 2010
A PRICELESS Vincent Van Gogh painting has been stolen from a Cairo museum in a brazen daytime theft. Egypt's Culture Minister Faruq Hosni said the painting, identified as Poppy Flowers, "was cut out of its frame in the Mahmoud Khalil museum after it opened in the morning," he said. He said employees of the museum, which also has works by Monet, Renoir and Degas, were being questioned and that measures were being taken at airports and ports to prevent the stolen painting being smuggled abroad.
Police officials, who valued the painting at about $50 million, said they were reviewing security camera footage and dusting the crime scene for fingerprints. A government website said the painting had been stolen before and recovered. The Mahmoud Khalil museum, in Cairo's middle and upper-class district of Dokki, was once the palace of a 1930s parliamentarian of the same name who amassed a large and priceless collection of artworks. The Egyptian State Information Service website said the museum's contents are valued at about $7 billion.
Egypt to Improve Museum Security After Van Gogh Theft
By Alaa Shahine
Egypt plans to set up a security control room to monitor all museums after the theft of a $55 million Vincent van Gogh painting in Cairo, Zahi Hawass, head of the country’s antiquities agency said today.
The Van Gogh work is one of 304 oil paintings and 50 sculptures in the three-story museum, which was built on the Nile in 1920 as the residence of Egyptian art collector Khalil. The most conservative estimate of the value of the collection is 7 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.2 billion), according to a government website. The museum features a number of pieces by European artists including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin and Claude Monet.
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Faulty alarms blamed for van Gogh theft in Egypt
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI (AP)
None of the alarms and only seven out of 43 surveillance cameras were working at a Cairo museum where a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen, Egypt's top prosecutor said Sunday. Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of "Poppy Flowers" and "Vase with Flowers," on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital. Prosecutor general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt's state news agency Sunday that the thieves used a box cutter to remove the painting from its frame. He blamed the theft on the museum's lax security measures, calling them "for the most part feeble and superficial." He said the museum guards' daily rounds at closing time were inadequate and did not meet minimum security requirements to protect internationally renowned works of art. Mahmoud also said his office had warned Egypt's museums to implement stricter security controls after nine paintings were stolen last year from another Cairo institute, the Mohammed Ali Museum. Similar security lapses were to blame in that theft.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Search still on for van Gogh painting in Egypt
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI (AP)
Egypt's culture minister has retracted his statement that a stolen Vincent van Gogh painting has been recovered. He says authorities have in fact not found the missing artwork, and that the search for the painting continues. The minister, Farouk Hosni, appeared on television and said his previous announcement of the painting's recovery was based on "inaccurate information" he had received from officials. He said the $50 million painting is still missing.
Earlier Saturday, Hosni said security officers at Cairo airport had confiscated the painting from an Italian couple as hours after the canvas was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital. It was not clear what caused the confusion over the artwork's fate, and officials could not be immediately contacted to clarify.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.