Van Gogh painting still missing

Egypt’s culture minister said today that a stolen Vincent van Gogh painting said to have been recovered by airport police was still missing.

Farouk Hosni said authorities had not found the missing artwork and that the search for the painting continued.

Mr Hosni appeared on television and said his announcement yesterday of the painting’s recovery was based on “inaccurate information” he had received from officials.

He said the £32m (€40m) painting was still missing.

Yesterday Mr Hosni said security officers at Cairo airport had confiscated the painting from an Italian couple hours after the canvas was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital.

It was not clear what caused the confusion over the artwork’s fate.

Mr Hosni said ``the statement was based on information we received that was false and incorrect''.

He said authorities were still searching for the missing painting, which goes by two titles – Poppy Flowers and Vase With Flowers.

It is the second time the painting has been stolen from the Khalil museum.

Thieves first made off with the canvas in 1978, before authorities recovered it two years later at an undisclosed location in Kuwait.

Officials have never fully revealed the details of that theft. When it was recovered, Egypt’s then-interior minister said three Egyptians involved in the heist had been arrested and informed police where the canvas was hidden. Authorities never reported whether the thieves were charged or tried.

The 1ft x 1ft canvas, believed to have been painted in 1887, resembles a flower scene by the French artist Adolphe Monticelli, whose work deeply affected van Gogh. The Monticelli painting also is part of the Khalil collection.

Most of the works for which van Gogh is remembered were painted in 29 months of frenzied activity before his suicide in 1890 at age 37.

The Cairo canvas was significant because it represented a turning point in van Gogh’s painting style, said Conor Jordan, the head of impressionist and modern art at Christie’s auction house in New York.

“It shows him assimilating the influences of the French avant-garde after having arrived in 1886 (from Amsterdam), absorbing as much as possible the current trend of French painting,” he said.

Mr Jordan added that it was a time when van Gogh was “immersed in this wonderful new world of colour”.

He said van Gogh’s work had a particular “resonance” with the public today and the story of his turbulent life and career carried a powerful message that helped makes his work so coveted around the world.

Other works in the Khalil museum’s collection, all from the 19th-century French school, are by Paul Gauguin, Gustave Courbet, Francois Millet, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin.