Egyptian tycoon offers reward for stolen Van Gogh painting

Cairo, Aug 27 (IANS/AKI) Egyptian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris has offered a 140,000 euro reward for information leading to the recovery of a stolen masterpiece by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, according to broadcaster Europe1.

Sawiris is the first businessman to have publicly offered a reward for Van Gogh’s “Vase and Flowers”, worth $55 million, which was stolen last Saturday from the Mahmud Khalil museum.

The billionaire owns the Middle Eastern telecoms group Orascom and one of the Italy’s largest mobile phone companies, Wind - which he is interested in selling.

An official from Egypt’s culture ministry and four museum employees were detained after Saturday’s heist. They were suspected of negligence.

Egypt’s top prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmud said early investigation of the theft showed “flagrant shortcomings” in security at the museum.

Only seven out of 43 security cameras had been working properly and that the alarms had been out of order for some time.

–IANS/AKI