CAIRO - Former deputy culture minister Mohsen Shaalan was sentenced to one year in jail yon Thursday over negligence that led to the theft of a $55 million Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum last August. "Shaalan is sentenced to one year in prison as three others will be jailed for six months and five others were acquitted," the Cairo Court of Appeals said. It added that the criminal charges were dropped for another defendant, who died during the hearings. Shaalan and the other nine suspects from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum were mainly sentenced by the first-instance court to three years in jail after the theft of the “Poppy Flowers” painting last year. An investigation by the Egyptian Government showed that at the time that "Poppy Flowers" which is valued at more than $50 million was cut from its frame, many of the security alarms were turned off and only seven of the 43 surveillance cameras were functioning, while a reduced numbers of guards patrolled the museum. The hunt for the missing painting continues, while border and airport officials are said to frantically screen travellers for the work, the disappearance of which has become a source of embarrassment for the Egyptian art establishment.
