15/09/2010 14:50
Egyptian officials to stand trial over Van Gogh theft
The director of the fine-arts sector in Egypt’s ministry of culture will stand trial along with 10 other ministry’s officials on charges of stealing a Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum.
Eleven culture officials are charged of last month's theft of a 12in-square painting of red and yellow flowers which was cut from its frame at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum. Investigation showed that all the alarms at the museum and 33 out of 40 security cameras had been broken for some time.
Van Gogh’s work, known both as Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers, is valued at more than $50 million.
If convicted the suspects could face three years in prison.