The Egyptian government's head of fine arts has been kept in custody pending an investigation into the theft of a Van Gogh painting over the weekend.

First under-secretary at the culture ministry, Mushin Sha'lan, was accused of “negligence”, according to Mena, the state news agency.

Other officials are thought to have been detained at the same time.

The painting, worth $50 million, was taken from a Cairo museum on Saturday and has been blamed on poor security.

The work is known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers. It was cut from the frame at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum during the day on Saturday.

Abdel Meguid Mahmud, Egypt's top prosecutor, said that none of the alarms went off at the museum, and only seven of 43 cameras were functional.

The broken alarms and cameras had not worked for a while.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram said nine culture ministry employees had also been disallowed traveling as part of the investigation into the robbery.

Government officials were unavailable for comment.

Police are focusing their efforts on the hunt for the missing Van Gogh in Egypt's sea and airports.

There was confusion on Saturday when Egypt's culture minister mistakenly thought the painting ahd been recovered.

Farouk Hosni claimed that two Italians had been arrested at the Cairo airport in connection with the theft after going to the museum earlier that day.

He later said that the information he was given was inaccurate.

The painting was previously stolen in 1978, but was recovered in Kuwait a decade alter.

The work, measuring 30cm by 30cm (1ft by 1ft), and depicting yellow and red flowers, is believed to have been painted by Vincent Van Gogh in 1887, three years before his death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.