CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s cultural minister says a stolen Vincent van Gogh painting valued at $50 million has been recovered by police at Cairo airport.
Minster Farouk Hosni says airport security confiscated the painting from two Italians on Saturday evening hours after the artwork was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Egyptian capital.
Hosni says the Italians were trying to leave the country.
The paiting goes by two titles, “Poppy Flowers” or “Vase with Flowers,” according to the Khalil museum’s director, Reem Bahir.
This is the second time the painting by van Gogh has been stolen from the Cairo museum. Thieves made off with the canvas in 1978, before authorities recovered it two years later at an undisclosed location in Kuwait.
