News: Van Gogh Theft, An Inside Job

The theft of a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting from an Egyptian museum last month was an inside job, Egypt’s top cop said in an interview published Monday. Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said the circumstances surrounding the theft of “Poppy Flower” from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil Museum showed that the staff of the museum must have stolen it themselves or was involved in the theft.
 
“The lesson learned from the robbery is a severe one that forces the review of all security measures in the places that hold the treasures of Egyptian civilization,” el-Adly told the state-run Al-Akhbar newspaper.
 
The minister said the search for the painting continued with the aid of the international police organization, Interpol, and security specialists from other Arab countries. The painting was stolen in the middle of the day from the museum, where investigators found that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working. The thieves had used a box cutter to slice the painting from its frame.
 
Eleven Culture Ministry officials were formally charged in last month’s theft and they have been referred to trial on charges of negligence and harming state property. Among them is a deputy minister who maintains he had appealed to the minister for funds to make security upgrades before the Aug. 21 theft but received little assistance. If convicted the suspects could face three years in prison.