Nine portraits were stolen from the Shubra Palace last week, reports Nevine El-Aref On 11 March curators opened the Shubra Palace to the public as normal only to discover that nine paintings were missing. The missing portraits include Khedive Ismail in Albanian uniform, his daughter Princess Fatemah, Mohamed Ali Pasha, his wife Khadija Ziba Kadin, Abbas Helmi I, Ismail's last wife Djananiar, Mohamed Ali the Younger, Ismail's third wife Gasham Afet and Aziz Ezzat Pasha. All the paintings were on loan from the Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni issued a statement saying officials at the palace last saw the paintings at closing time on Monday evening. The keys were subsequently handed to the Tourism and Antiquities police who are responsible for guarding the palace when it is closed. The police and general prosecution have been informed of the theft and begun investigations. The palace, meanwhile, will be closed to the public. The theft has raised questions about the security system installed at the palace as part of its restoration four years ago. Hosni has said the palace was equipped with a burglar alarm but no CCTV cameras had been installed because of the expense. Yet the budget for the restoration of a building once known as the Egyptian Versailles topped LE50 million. The early 19th-century buildings that comprise what remains of the palace complex feature a blend of rococo and baroque styles. They include a hippodrome, an artificial lake surrounded by galleries flanked by four pavilions and a mosque. The palace, built between 1808 to 1821, lies in grounds covering 11,000 feddans. It originally consisted of 13 buildings used by Mohamed Ali Pasha as a guest house for foreign ambassadors and members of his family. During World War I the haramlik (main palace) was demolished by Aziza, a member of the royal family, when it was rumoured that the British were thinking of using it for military purposes. In 1935 King Fouad used the buildings as a temporary residence for members of the Egyptian royal family. Parts of the garden were destroyed during the construction of the Cairo- Alexandria agricultural road. Following the 1952 Revolution the palace garden became the premises of Ain Shams University's Faculty of Agriculture. The site was turned into a farm complete with chicken coops, rabbit hutches, a barn and research laboratories. Today three sections of the original palace complex are still in place: the gabalaya, used as a residence for women; the fasqiya ; a nymphaeum complex used for receptions and festivals, and the saqiya, which once supplied the palace with water from the Nile. In 1984 the palace and its garden were listed and handed over to the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The move, intended to protect what remained of the palace from misuse, triggered a conflict with Ain Shams University. The Faculty of Agriculture refused to vacate and restoration work was, as a consequence, delayed. In 2000 Hosni inspected the palace and called for work to begin immediately to salvage what remained. The ceilings, painted with foliage motifs, and portraits of Mohamed Ali and his family, set in medallions, were badly damaged, the walls traced with cracks, and the marble bestiary -- frogs, lions, serpent, fish and crocodiles -- carved on the basis of the elaborate fountain, close to disintegration.
