Quick Takes: Cairo officials culpable in Van Gogh theft, court rules

An Egyptian court convicted 11 officials from the Culture Ministry, including the deputy minister, of gross negligence and incompetence Tuesday in the August theft of a Vincent Van Gogh painting that embarrassed the government.

The defendants received sentences of three years in prison and will have to post a bond of $1,800 to remain free until the appeal.

“Poppy Flower,” valued at $50 million, was stolen in broad daylight from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil Museum. Subsequent investigations revealed that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working.

Authorities have not made public any information about progress in the search for the painting or the thieves.

—Associated Press

Richter to join O’Brien show

Conan O’Brien is taking his longtime sidekick Andy Richter with him to his new late-night talk show.

Cable TV channel TBS said Tuesday that Richter would join O’Brien’s new venture when it makes its debut Nov. 8.

TBS previously said that former O’Brien bandleader Max Weinberg would not be part of the new show.

—Reuters

‘Dragon’ to be weekly series

Kids (and parents), get ready for more lessons in how to train that pesky dragon.

DreamWorks’ box-office hit “How to Train Your Dragon” will be coming to Cartoon Network as a weekly series in 2012, the network said Tuesday. The news comes on the heels of DreamWorks’ announcement earlier this week that production has started on “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”

The computer-animated film, based on the book by Cressida Cowell about a young Viking who sparks an unlikely friendship with a dragon, has banked nearly $500 million worldwide since its release in the spring.

—Yvonne Villarreal

NPR chided over Norris

National Public Radio got a wrist-slapping from its ombudsman Tuesday for allowing NPR host Michele Norris to appear on all four of its news programs last month to promote her new memoir, “The Grace of Silence.”

“After spending a day searching, NPR librarians could not find any other author who appeared on all four programs,” Alicia Shepard wrote on her NPR blog. She said Norris’ book had received 58 minutes of air time over a two-week period on “Morning Edition,” “Talk of the Nation,” “Tell Me More” and “All Things Considered,” which Norris co-hosts.

Although several listeners complained about an apparent conflict of interest, Shepard said Norris had done nothing wrong and that “NPR, as a network, was not intentionally trying to promote her book,” noting that each show’s executive producer made the decision to interview her independently. But the network needs to “formulate a policy on how to handle future staff books” and ensure that NPR employees are “treated the same as other authors,” Shepard concluded.

—Lee Margulies

Bank site gets a new arty spin

In a strange turn of events, the banking world’s loss is the art world’s gain.

The PFF Bank and Trust closed its doors in Pomona last year, and federal regulators put its building up for sale. But instead of another business taking over the two-story, 51,000-square-foot structure, the American Museum of Ceramic Art will be moving in and gaining some serious elbow room.

Museum founder David Armstrong said he bought the building for $2.5 million and is turning the first floor into the museum’s new home. The second floor will continue to be leased to Western University.

The museum’s current home, just four blocks away, has 2,600 square feet of exhibition space. The new site will have closer to 7,000. It also will have room, Armstrong said, for a permanent collection display, a reference library, an education and studio area with a communal kiln, and a museum shop.

He expects the museum to be fully functional in its new space by November 2011.

—Jori Finkel