The theft of a Van Gogh painting from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum continues to make headlines as the minister of culture and the head of the Fine Arts Section engage in a very public squabble, reports Nevine El-Aref Investigations into the theft of a painting by Van Gogh, estimated to be worth more than $50 million, have revealed that two Egyptians visited the museum three times each in the period immediately before the theft. One of them spoke with Alaa Mansour, one of the museum guards now in detention. Mansour described the man to be Mohsen Shaalan, head of the Ministry of Culture's Fine Arts Section, who used his drawing skills to create a portrait. According to Mansour the man is of medium height, has green eyes and light coloured hair. The ongoing police investigation has also confirmed that the museum had reduced the number of security guards from 30 to nine and that most days there was a single guard on duty at the museum, which contains priceless works by Gauguin, Van Gogh, Courbet, Millet, Monet, Manet, Adolphe Monticelli, Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin, among others. Only seven of the museum's 43 surveillance cameras were functioning, and none of the alarms attached to paintings was working. After hearing evidence from 32 witnesses and reviewing the findings of the initial police investigation, Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud ordered the detention of Mohsen Shaalan, head of the Fine Arts Section, four security guards at the museum and the curator responsible for the missing painting. They are likely to face charges of negligence and professional delinquency. Three other employees, among them the museum director Reem Ahmed, were freed on bail. All nine have been banned from travelling abroad until the completion of investigations. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni has also accused Shaalan of negligence in what has become an increasingly heated war of words between the two. Shaalan denies the accusations, claiming that he is being used as a scapegoat. He has accused Farouk Abdel-Salam, Hosni's office manager, of putting pressure on prosecutors to incriminate him in the theft and exclude Hosni from any criminal charges. In a letter submitted by Shaalan's lawyer Samir Sabri, Shaalan charges that Hosni was negligent and presided over a sloppy administration that allowed policy museums to steadily run down. He called on the prosecutor in charge of the case to re-interrogate him, claiming he has new documented evidence that reveals the extent of ministerial negligence. In interviews mediated by Sabri with several daily newspapers, among them Al-Ahram, Shaalan insists that the authority delegated to him within the ministry was the same as that given to all senior officials and did not extend to any project costing more than LE300,000. The cost of replacing broken surveillance cameras and alarms and upgrading overall security at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum would, he says, involve a bill of up to LE16 million and was therefore outside his remit. He also claims to have informed the Ministry of Culture on several occasions since 2007 of security problems at the museum but his complaints were ignored until LE40 million was finally made available from the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) to upgrade all of the museums that fall under the Fine Art Section. Hosni, says Shalaan, has devoted most of his efforts and almost all of the ministry's budget to the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking Giza Plateau and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, in addition to his 2009 UNESCO campaign. "Why did the minister choose me to head the Fine Arts Section?" asks Shaalan. "I was chosen because of my record of efficiency when I was the head of the Central Administration for Museums and Exhibitions. I succeeded in negotiating the return of the Hamed Nada paintings stolen from the Cairo Opera House, and prevented the auction of a stolen Mahmoud Said canvas by Christies in Dubai." Hosni refutes Shaalan's charges, telling Al-Ahram Weekly that "Shaalan had initially asked the Ministry of Economic Development for money to upgrade security and not the Ministry of Culture". "I advised Shaalan to develop the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, which was officially inaugurated in 1995, and allocated funds from the CDF to this end." Early this week Hosni submitted a request to the prosecution to make a formal statement. He told the Weekly that his previous visit to the prosecutor-general had been on an informal basis but he now wants to officially record a statement. According to Hosni, he told the prosecutor that he had delegated full responsibility for the museum to Shalaan. "The responsibility of ministers is well known. A minister must respond to requests submitted by his subordinates and that is what happened." Hosni says that when Shaalan asked for a budget to upgrade security at the 15 museums that fall under the Fine Arts Section the necessary funds were applied for from the Ministry of Economic Development. Hosni also says he ordered improvements to the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, that the contract for the work was given to the Arab Contractors Company and that Shaalan received the consultant architect's fees six months ago. He points out that some of the documents submitted to the prosecution relate to the budget allocated to his campaign to become director- general of UNESCO. "The government allocated LE28 million for the campaign but we spent just 940,000 euros, including travel, official receptions and publications. The difference," says Hosni, "was returned to the government". He claims the documents also show that he had allocated LE16.5 million to renovate the Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The Mahmoud Khalil Museum first opened on 23 July 1962. It showcases paintings and other artworks collected by Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Pasha and his wife Emiline Lock, which were left to the state following the death of the couple. In 1971 the family villa was annexed by the government of President Anwar El-Sadat and used as additional office space. The collection then moved to what is now the Ceramics Museum in Giza, only to return to its original home in 1995.
