CAIRO: Egypt pledged on Tuesday to implement strict measures to protect its cultural and archaeological riches after the theft of a Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece in broad daylight from an unguarded Cairo museum.
Antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said alarm systems in museums across the country would be upgraded and linked to a central control room monitored by security forces.
"A central control room will be set up and will be electronically linked to all the surveillance rooms that exist in the museums," Hawass, who heads Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement.
According to a statement by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the Nuba Museum will be closed for two weeks as its surveillance and alarm systems are upgraded.
Security presence will be intensified inside as well as outside the museum as it undergoes renovation, Hawass said.
The statement added that the Nuba Museum’s security system, that has been operational ever since it opened in 1997, has broken down several times with no available spare parts.
Saturday’s theft from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil museum of the Dutch master’s "Poppy Flowers" — also known as "Vase with Flowers" — has left Egyptian authorities red-faced and struggling to fend off mounting criticism.
The government daily Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Monday that the museum’s security system had been out of order since December 2006.
A police official said the theft was discovered at around noon (1000 GMT) on Saturday when a group of Spanish visitors who went to the room where it was displayed alerted security.
"I did not imagine that it was possible to steal a painting from the Mahmud Khalil museum," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni told Al-Ahram on Monday.
"The museum would have been closed if it had been known the warning system was not working," he said.
He later told the official MENA news agency that the control room will be run by Egyptian intelligence.
According to Hawass, the country’s 23 museums that are open to the public "are equipped with cameras and alarm systems to safeguard against theft and fires."
Tourist and antiquities police are also deployed in these museums on a "permanent basis," he said in his statement.
Another 18 museums that are being built or restored will also be equipped with hi-tech alarm systems, Hawass said.
But Egyptian media and commentators failed to be swayed by such assurances and criticized what they said were ill-trained personnel and understaffing at the country’s museums.
Al-Ahram set the tone in an article on Tuesday headlined: "Museums in Danger."
"One of the main problems is the lack of qualified and well-trained staff," the newspaper said in a commentary.
Former antiquities chief Abdel Halim Nurreddin agreed.
"It is not enough to speak about setting up exemplary security for museums to protect them from theft," Nurreddin told AFP.
Authorities should hire "invisible" guards who would carry out round-the-clock surveillance discreetly and efficiently, he said.
Art critic Osama Afifi said that 18 years ago he and friends decided to "test" the security system of a museum and managed to snatch a statue and place it in a bag without being caught.
"Egyptian museums are crammed with objects and works of art and therefore it is extremely difficult to have enough staff to protect everything," Afifi said.
The task ahead will be difficult in a country like Egypt which is home to fabulous Pharaonic treasures such as the stunning 11-kilo (24-pound) solid gold death mask of boy-king Tutankhamun displayed at the Egyptian Museum.
In 2004, a would-be thief managed to avoid detection and hid inside the museum after it was locked down for the day but was arrested the following morning when he tried to make a dash for the gates of the 1902 building.
Egypt also hosts countless Islamic artifacts as well as Christian and Jewish antiquities and collections of art from around the world.
Next month, the Museum of Islamic Art — the world’s largest — reopens its doors to the public after an eight-year restoration project that cost $10 million.
The culture minister said earlier this month that the renovation had resulted in "a great change in the way the works are exhibited, protected and lit." –AFP and Daily News Egypt
