A Cairo museum employee is behind the theft in Egypt last month of Vincent Van Gogh's Poppy Flowers painting, the country's interior minister said.

The painting, worth about $55 million, was stolen from the private Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo on August 21.

"Various details of the theft prove that one of the museum employees either took part in the crime or stole the painting on his own," Habib Al-Adli said in an interview with Egypt's MENA news agency.

He added the search for the painting is continuing in Egypt and elsewhere with the assistance of Interpol.

Prosecutors in the case said earlier that negligence on the part of museum staff played a role in the theft, noting that only 7 of the 47 security cameras in the museum were working, the security system was poor and that none of the alarms sounded during the theft.

CAIRO, September 27 (RIA Novosti)