CAIRO - Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni rejected yesterday criticism over the theft of a painting by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh from a Cairo museum, saying that his aide, now remanded on charges of negligence, is not a scapegoat. "I know my responsibilities well. I do not have mistakes to blame on others or to deceive public opinion. After all, Mohssen Shaalan was remanded by the unbiased Public Prosecution," Hosni told the official Middle East News Agency in an interview. He added that Shaalan, who is kept in police custody along with four others, had been lax in handing the museum over to a company to renovate it until the theft happened last week. "Shaalan certainly made fatal mistakes," Hosni said. Meanwhile, Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris has offered an LE1 million ($175,300) reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen “Poppy Flowers” painting by Van Gogh. Sawiris, the Chairman of the leading mobile operator Orascom Telecom, is the first businessman to become publicly involved in the search for the painting, worth an estimated $55 million. The painting was stolen on Saturday from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo, home to one of the Middle East's finest collections of 19th- and 20th-century art. An early investigation of the theft showed "flagrant shortcomings" in security, with only seven out of 43 security cameras working properly. Minister Hosni said that the Ministry of Culture had already allocated LE8 million to upgrade museums while installing surveillance cameras in the Mahmoud Khalil Museum would cost LE800,00 only. Culture Ministry's head of fine art Mohssen Shaalan has been detained for 15 days pending further investigation after being accused of "negligence and failing to carry out their employment duties". Nine other employees were barred from travel. Shaalan said that he had talked with Hosni about a new surveillance system for the museum, stressing that the minister shares responsibility for the theft of the painting. The museum houses works assembled by Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil, a politician who died in 1953, including paintings by Gauguin, Monet, Manet and Renoir, as well as the Dutch post-Impressionist master Van Gogh.
