- News - 15 officials barred from traveling out of Egypt following the the...

Egypt's Prosecutor General barred 15 of the officials of the ministry of Culture in Egypt from leaving the country until the investigation into the theft of Van-Gogh Painting is complete. Mohsen Sha'alan, the Deputy Culture Minister is among those officials. Earlier, The minister of culture, Farouk Hosni, announced the detention of some officials for the same reason.
The Egyptian minister of culture said: "Administrative Prosecution is still investigating the theft of the painting of the Dutch Painter "Vincent Van-Gogh" that took place at Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo on August 21st 2010. This is the second time. The Painting was first stolen in 1977 and recovered in 1988.
The minister added that "Mohsen Sha'alan, the head of the Fine Arts sector and Reem Bahir, the director of the museum were detained altogether with the rest of the staff of the museum, and that they will not be set free before the end of the current investigations which are focused on the negligence and the regressive situation of the museum and its security system (alarms and surveillance cameras).
In his announcement to the French news agency, Hosni emphasized that: "the ministry had decided to temporarily close the museum to renovate it and redesign it on new grounds to fit its artistic treasures from the 19th and 20th century, and to renew its alarm and security systems. Sufficient resources were allocated for this project and the renewal budget was approved by the council of ministers.
"The museum was to be closed in a few days", he added, "and its contents, worth millions of dollars, were to be taken to the warehouses of the Fine Arts sector in "Jazira" area, which are very well structured and secured buildings that share the same grounds with Egyptian Opera House".
Prosecutor General, Abdul Majid Mahmoud gave the press a statement following his visit to the museum to view it himself. He stressed that "the value of the painting is not less than 55 million U.S.$ (300 million L.E. approximately)".
He elaborated that "only 7 of the museum's 47 surveillance cameras are working, and that all alarms attached to the 54 exhibited paintings were out of service".
The officials in the Fine Arts sector justified this by saying that "they haven't managed to find spare parts for the security systems", Said the Prosecutor General.
Many Fine Arts enthusiasts expressed their deep sadness for losing this painting. They also expressed their anger for "not living up to the standard security measures that should have been applied to secure the paintings, being one of the most precious art treasures of Egypt along with tens of other paintings which are still locked up in the warehouses and haven't been exhibited yet according to the critic "Izzdine Najib".
Najib said that "this painting is one of Egypt's very important art acquisitions and that the authorities tried to sell this collection back in the nineties in order to pay back the debts of Egypt". However, this decision of the government back then was opposed by an elite of Egyptian intellectuals led by names like Najib Mahfouz, Tawfik Al-Hakim, Lewis Awad and others. This opposition forced the authorities to back off, and this group of intellectuals could indeed protect those art treasures that we are all proud of".
Najib stressed that "it is unbelievable that such invaluable treasures could be lost this way due to negligence and lack of maintenance of the security systems assigned to these treasures". "Personally, I can't understand it, He added, that surveillance cameras of such an important museum could actually be inoperative".
It is worth mentioning here that the first theft incident of the painting took place at the arts center in Zamalek area. The contents of The Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum were moved to this center when the deceased Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat first became president. The building of The Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum/Palace was used for presidential security purposes. After the assassination of Al-Sadat, however, the paintings were sent back to their original place, The Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil and his wife Museum/Palace in Dukki area on the western bank of the Nile River. The museum was by then provided with the best available technologies at the time. It was also renewed 18 years ago. The showrooms of the museum were used to exhibit many globally famous art works from different countries, being the most secure Egyptian museum.
A number of outstanding paintings were stolen in Egypt in the past, among of which are 7 paintings that were stolen from The Mohamed Ali Basha Palace in Shubra-Alkheima area. After a few hours, however, they were found near the walls of the palace.
A painting of the notable Egyptian artist Hamed Nada was also stolen off the walls of the gallery that surrounds the big theater of the Egyptian Opera House, but the painting was captured in Cairo airport. There were information at that time that a rich businessman from the Arabian Gulf countries had bought it.
Egypt's Culture Minister had announced that the painting was stolen from the museum and that the thieves used a box cutter to remove it from its frame. According to the minister, the heist took place in the morning shift since the painting was still in its place when the museum was opened in the morning. The disappearance of the painting was first discovered near the closing time at that afternoon.
On the same morning, a fire blew up in the administration building of the fine arts sector which is adjacent to the museum. It is still unknown, however, whether there is any connection between the fire and the theft or not.
The museums of Egypt have several exceptional paintings of great artists such as Monet, Gauguin, Courbet, and others. These paintings are worth tens of millions of dollars. Gauguin's "Life and Death" alone is worth 75 million dollars.