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We’ve been following an increasingly bizarre story from Egypt this week: what at first seemed to be a straight-forward theft of Van Gogh’s ‘Poppy Flowers’ (also known as ‘Vase with Flowers’) has spiraled into farce. First, Egypt’s Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced that the painting had been recovered, only for that apparent sigh of relief to be based on false information. Then the Deputy Minister of Culture, Muhsin Sha'lan, was by default “implicated” in the theft by Egypt’s Prosecutor General, solely because he is in charge of the museum’s financial affairs. The painting was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo, helped by serious security lapses – none of the museum’s alarms and only seven of 43 surveillance cameras were working. Sha'lan has not been charged with anything, but it’s an interesting precedent: if he can be held responsible for the theft, perhaps we could apply the same wacky logic here? If Jeremy Hunt, Ed Vaizey, George Osborne and David Cameron became personally liable for our works of art, perhaps they would be a little more generous with funds. Picture the scene: Hunt arrested on charges of “professional delinquency and negligence” for not providing the Tate with enough money to keep its alarms working…

A Van Gogh painting was stolen in Egypt, and faulty alarms were blamed...
Telegraph Independent BBC

...claims that it had been recovered proved to be false...
Guardian Guardian BBC

...and the Egyptian Deputy Culture Minister has now been arrested on suspicion of “negligence”
BBC Guardian

Tom Stoppard is to script a new drama for the BBC
Guardian Guardian Stage

Nick Starr, Executive Director of the National Theatre, has called for Arts&Business to lose its ACE subsidy
Stage Stage

Stringent enforcement of customs regulations is hurting galleries which import paintings
Art Newspaper

The Booker Prize longlist has been announced
Telegraph Guardian Guardian BBC Observer Guardian

Performers have hit back at moves to "shut them out" of the Edinburgh Fringe Society
Scotsman

Jonathan Mills, Director of the Edinburgh International Festival, has defended it against claims that the Fringe is overshadowing it
Scotsman

The Edinburgh Festival faces a difficult year in 2011 as backers and sponsors worth millions of pounds pull out
FT

A new survey has revealed that the British public has a very limited knowledge of classical music
Telegraph Guardian

A Cleveland music journalist who was banned from reporting on his local orchestra has lost his court case
Chicago Tribune FT Cleveland.com

Elie Weisel has been removed from a play in which he appeared as a character
Wall Street Journal ArtsJounal New York Times

A row has erupted over whether 'The X Factor' has allowed its participants to be "autotuned"
BBC Guardian Guardian Guardian

The National Trust is Scotland may be forced to sell its treasures to avoid going bust
Scotsman

New York's Metropolitan Opera has sold a record £1.6m of tickets for its new season
BBC

Blogs:
Angie Brown and Andrew Dickson consider the future of plays broadcast to cinemas

Charlotte Higgins considers the demands made of the audience in more and more theatre

Pauline McLean hopes that Creative Scotland will learn a lesson from the furore surrounding the scrapping of the UK Film Council

Dan Hancox bemoans the ubiquity of music played out loud from mobile phones

Good reads:
Rena de Sisto argues that corporate sponsors of the arts are the good guys, while Clemency Burton-Hill argues that increasing philanthropy would be a disaster for the arts.

Jonathan Miller's claim that he has not seen a West End show in a decade has sparked debate here, here, here, here, here and here

Ismem Brown presents a transcript of Radio 4's 'You and Yours' which debated arts funding

John Kay suggests that a good economist should know the true value of the arts

Natalie Wheen goes backstage at La Scala and reveals some interesting problems

Marcus Westbury asks if the Australia Council (equivalent to the UK's arts councils) has had its day

Frank Cottrell Boyce ponders how much having children affects an artist's ability to work