Egypt court jails 11 for stolen Van Gogh

[October 13, 2010]  CAIRO (AP) -- An Egyptian court has convicted 11 officials from the Culture Ministry, including the deputy minister, for gross negligence and incompetence in the theft of a Vincent Van Gogh painting.

The men were sentenced to three years in prison and will have to post a bond of $1,800 to stay out of prison until the appeal.

The $50 million painting, titled "Poppy Flower," was stolen in the middle of the day from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum, where investigators found that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working.

The deputy minister, Mohsen Shalan, claimed that the ministry rejected his demand for funds to upgrade security.

The museum's director and the chief of security were among those convicted.

[Associated Press]

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