Egypt's interior minister said Sunday that an employee working in a Cairo museum was probably behind the theft of a Van Gogh painting that left Egyptian authorities red-faced. “There are many circumstances around the theft of the Poppy Flowers that point to the fact that a museum employee participated in the theft or stole it himself,” Habib Al-Adly told the official MENA news agency. “The location and placement inside the museum confirms this,” Adly said. Vincent Van Gogh's “Poppy Flowers,” also known as “Vase with Flowers” was stolen last month in a brazen daytime heist in a case that highlighted major security lapses in cultural institutions. The Dutch masterpiece, valued at more than $50 million, was cut out of its frame. The painting, of yellow and red flowers in a vase, had been stolen before in 1977, but was recovered the following year.
