Cairo: A Vincent van Gogh painting worth an estimated $ 55 million was stolen from a Cairo museum on Saturday and after reporting it had been recovered, the state news agency quoted a minister as saying that it was still missing.
Citing Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, the MENA news agency reported that security men had caught a young Italian couple with a painting by the Dutch post-Impressionist master at the airport and was detained.
Later the agency, which said the painting was worth an estimated $ 55 million, issued another statement from the minister saying, "measures were being taken to recover the painting", which was identified as the Poppy Flower.
The minister said information about the painting being recovered initially was "not accurate and was not confirmed until now by the responsible agencies."
It was not immediately clear how the confusion over the painting's fate arose.
The painting, earlier in the day, had been stolen from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum and taken to the banks of the river Nile.
The state news agency MENA had said security personnel had tracked down visitors to the museum and an Italian couple was suspected of stealing the painting after an employee spotted them visiting a bathroom and then leave the museum in a hurry.
The Mahmoud Khalil Museum is home to one of Middle East's finest collections of 19th and 20th century art and includes works by Gauguin, Monet, Manet and Renoir.
The collection includes works assembled by Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, a politician who died in 1953.
The culture minister earlier had instructed security forces to take measures to ensure the painting did not leave the country. It was not clear exactly how the painting was stolen.
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