# Vase with Viscaria > Vincent van Gogh - Paris, summer 1886 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/vincent-van-gogh/van-gogh-poppy-flowers/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-31 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Vincent van Gogh - **Date:** Paris, summer 1886 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Dimensions:** 65 x 54 cm - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Dutch, nineteenth century - **Current location:** Unlocated. Stolen from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Giza, Cairo, on 21 August 2010, and not recovered. It was stolen from the same collection once before and came back. - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary A flower piece painted in Paris in the summer of 1886, 65 by 54 centimetres, catalogued F 324a and JH 1137. It was bought in Paris by Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil, an Egyptian politician who was twice prime minister, and it may be the first van Gogh acquired by a collector outside Europe and North America. It went to the Egyptian state with the rest of his collection and the villa in Giza opened as a museum on 23 July 1962.It has been stolen from that collection twice. The first time it came back, from Kuwait, in circumstances that have never been explained, and with a rumour attached that has never been settled. The second time, on 21 August 2010, a thief cut it out of its frame during opening hours and walked out. Egypt's prosecutor general found that not one alarm in the museum was working and that seven of the forty-three cameras were. The culture minister announced a recovery at Cairo airport the same day and withdrew the claim the next.Everyone calls it Poppy Flowers. The standard catalogue calls it Vase with Viscaria, because most of the flowers in it are not poppies. That is not pedantry: a picture with three names and one photograph is exactly how a stolen object disappears twice. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1886-c. 1920s** Unrecorded `[unknown]` (gap) Nothing is recorded of the picture's ownership between its painting in Paris in the summer of 1886 and its purchase by Khalil, which the sources place in Paris and possibly as early as the 1920s. Van Gogh sold almost nothing in his lifetime, so the canvas will have passed through the family and the early dealer trade, but no specific owner is documented in the sources consulted. - **c. 1920s-1953** Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil, Cairo and Paris `[documented]` (purchase) Bought in Paris by Khalil, twice prime minister of Egypt, born 1877, died 1953, who had bought his palace at Giza in 1918 and was a regular visitor to the Paris dealers. It may be the first van Gogh bought by a collector outside Europe and North America. Neither the date, the dealer nor the price is recorded in the sources consulted. - **1953-1962** Emiline Hector Lock, then the Egyptian state `[documented]` (inheritance and bequest) Khalil died in 1953 and his wife in 1960. The collection and the palace passed to the state, and the museum opened on 23 July 1962, dedicated to them both. - **1962-1978** Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum `[documented]` (public collection) In the collection. From 1971 the palace itself was taken over for President Sadat's executive offices and did not return to museum use until 1993, reopening to the public in 1995. Where the collection was kept during those twenty-two years is not stated in the sources consulted, which matters because the first theft falls inside the period. - **1978-c. 1980** Unknown; the painting was in criminal hands `[disputed]` (theft) Stolen from the collection and recovered about two years later in Kuwait, in circumstances the sources agree were never fully explained. Egypt's interior minister said three Egyptians had been arrested and had led police to the hiding place. The date is contested: The Art Newspaper and a contemporaneous account give 1978 with a two-year gap; Wikipedia gives 4 June 1977 with a recovery a decade later. It was suggested at the time that the picture had been copied while missing and that a copy had been returned. Nothing in the sources tests the claim. - **c. 1980-2010** Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum `[documented]` (restitution to the collection) Back on the wall. No published technical examination of the returned canvas has been found, which is why the substitution rumour is still open and why the attribution question raised by Ronald Pickvance was never settled. - **2010-present** Unknown. Title remains with the Egyptian state `[documented]` (theft) Cut from its frame with a box cutter during opening hours on Saturday 21 August 2010 and removed from the museum. Not one alarm in the building was working and seven of forty-three cameras were, on the prosecutor general's finding. The culture minister announced a recovery at Cairo airport and retracted it the next day. Eleven ministry employees were convicted of negligence in October 2010. The painting was still missing when the museum reopened in 2021 and is missing now. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - This painting has never been sold at auction. It was bought privately in Paris at an unrecorded price and has been state property in Egypt since the 1950s. There is no hammer price, no premium, no auction estimate, no published insurance valuation and no probate figure in its history. The 55 million dollar and 50 million dollar figures that appear in every report of the 2010 theft are press estimates that entered circulation within two days of it and have been repeated since; nothing was appraised. The one real number attached to the case is a reward: 175,000 dollars, or one million Egyptian pounds, offered by Naguib Sawiris for information leading to the painting's return. It has not been claimed, and a reward is not a valuation. ## Open questions - When was the first theft, and how long was the painting gone? Two independent accounts give 1978 and a recovery two years later in Kuwait. A tertiary source gives 4 June 1977 and a recovery a decade later. The discrepancy is unresolved. - Is the canvas that came back from Kuwait the canvas that was taken? It was suggested at the time that copies had been made while it was missing. No published examination has tested it, and none can now be made. - Is the attribution sound? Louis van Tilborgh accepts it; Ronald Pickvance questioned it. There is no technical evidence either way and there cannot be while the object is missing. - Where was the picture between 1971 and 1993, when the Khalil palace was in use as presidential executive offices and was not a museum? The first theft falls inside that period and the sources consulted do not say where the collection was housed. - When, from whom and for how much did Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil buy it? The accounts say Paris and possibly the 1920s, with no dealer and no price. - Does the museum hold high-resolution photography or a conservation file for the picture? Nothing of that quality is in public circulation, and the best free image available is a photograph of a modern reproduction. - Two reproductions circulate on Wikimedia Commons under this painting's title and its catalogue number, and they differ visibly in handling; one derives from a website that sells hand-painted reproductions. Which of the images in circulation actually descend from photographs of the object? - Was the picture insured, and by whom? No insurance position for the Khalil collection appears in the sources consulted. ## Sources - [1] Van Gogh Gallery, catalogue entry for F 324a, 'Vase with Viscaria'. Used for the catalogue title, the F and JH numbers, the dating to Paris in the summer of 1886, the medium, the dimensions of 65 x 54 cm and the current status as stolen in August 2010. - [2] Wikipedia, 'Poppy Flowers'. Used for the F 324a and JH 1137 numbers, the alternative 1977 theft date and ten-year recovery, the October 2010 conviction of eleven culture ministry employees including deputy minister Mohsen Shaalan, the three-year sentences and bail of about USD 1,750, Shaalan's later one-year term ending in 2013, the Naguib Sawiris reward of USD 175,000 or EGP 1 million, and the USD 55 million press figure. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the Egyptian court record and the museum's own file. - [3] The Art Newspaper, Martin Bailey, 'How a Van Gogh painting was stolen from a Cairo museum - not once, but twice', 21 May 2021. Used for the dating to the summer of 1886, the title Vase with Flowers, Khalil's purchase in Paris possibly as early as the 1920s and his habit of frequenting the Impressionist dealers, the first theft in 1978 with recovery two years later after the picture surfaced in Kuwait, the box-cutter theft during opening hours in 2010, the prosecutor general's description of the security as feeble and superficial, the exclusion of the painting from the 2021 reopening, and the acceptance of the work by Louis van Tilborgh against the doubt of the late Ronald Pickvance. - [4] The History Blog, 'Van Gogh Poppy Flowers stolen from Egypt museum', 22 August 2010, a contemporaneous account written the day after the theft. Used for the box cutters, Farouk Hosni's announcement of a recovery at the airport and his retraction the following day, the USD 50 million figure, the first theft given as 1978 with recovery two years later in Kuwait, the rumour that the picture was copied while missing and that a copy was returned, prosecutor general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud's findings that no alarm in the museum worked and that seven of forty-three cameras did, the insufficient guard rounds, the nine paintings stolen from another Cairo museum in 2009 and recovered ten days later, and the barring of fifteen officials from leaving the country. It also carries the erroneous 30 x 30 cm dimension that circulated in the first agency reports. - [5] Al Jazeera, 'Egypt blames security for art theft', 23 August 2010. Used for Farouk Hosni's claim that two Italians had been arrested at Cairo airport with the painting and his subsequent retraction, and for the security official's statement that the cameras had not worked for a long time and neither had the alarm system. - [6] Wikipedia, 'Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum'. Used for Khalil's dates of 1877 to 1953, his two terms as prime minister, the purchase of the palace in 1918, the collection assembled with his wife Emiline Lock, the museum's opening on 23 July 1962, the use of the palace for President Sadat's executive offices from 1971 until 1993 and the reopening in 1995. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the museum's own history. - [7] Smithsonian Magazine, Brigit Katz, 'After 30 Years of Doubt, a Painting of Poppies Is Authenticated as a van Gogh', 26 March 2019. Used for the Wadsworth Atheneum's Vase with Poppies: the 1957 Titzell bequest, Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov's 1976 doubt, Walter Feilchenfeldt's visit around 1990, the move into storage, the 2019 digital X-ray and infrared reflectography revealing an earlier self-portrait, the confirmation by the Van Gogh Museum and the return to display in April 2019; for Louis van Tilborgh's term 'floaters'; and for the 1886 letter to Horace Livens quoted in the dossier. - [8] Wikipedia, 'Otto Wacker'. Used for the 1928 forgery affair: Leonhard Wacker as the likely painter, the invented Russian provenance, the discovery by Grete Ring and Walter Feilchenfeldt in January 1928, de la Faille's supplement of November 1928 identifying the pictures as forgeries, the Berlin National Gallery's finding of a drying resin absent from genuine van Goghs and of non-French canvases, and the 1932 trial, conviction, nineteen-month sentence and 30,000 Reichsmark fine. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the trial record and de la Faille's Les Faux van Gogh. - [9] Wikipedia, 'Vincent van Gogh'. Used for the birth and death dates and places, the Paris years from March 1886 to February 1888 and the move to 54 rue Lepic in June 1886, the more than two hundred Paris paintings, the absence of correspondence from that period, the scale of the oeuvre at about 2,100 works and about 860 oil paintings, and Johanna van Gogh-Bonger's publication of the letters in 1906, 1913 and 1914. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the Van Gogh Museum's catalogue and the letters edition. - [10] Wikimedia Commons file records for this painting and its comparanda, read as wikitext rather than as API summaries: the F 324a and JH 1137 references and the 65 x 54 cm dimensions on the Cairo picture; the German title Vase mit Pechnelken and the English Vase with Viscaria, Vase with Lychnis and Poppy Flowers; the note that the largest available image is a digital colour reconstruction photographed at the Van Gogh, My Dream exhibition in Budapest in 2013; and the de la Faille bibliography for F 280 recording five successive titles between 1918 and 1982. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.