Mystery Surrounds Disappearance of Royal Gifts: Valuable Paintings Missing from Moroccan Parliament

These three works of art by the painter Fouad Bellamine represented an invaluable gift from the late king to enhance the Hall of Parliament. They have disappeared without the current President of the House of Representatives, Habib El Malki, or his predecessors Rachid Talbi Alami, Mustapha Mansouri and Abdelouahed Radi, or even Ahmed Osman, solving the mystery of their disappearance, claims Le360.

During a media outing last week, Habib El Malki said he knew nothing about the disappearance of the painter’s canvases, purchased by the late Hassan II in the mid-1980s for the decoration of the Parliament hall.

The same source specifies that the case had broken out when the painter had agreed with the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat to organize the first Fouad Bellamine retrospective, scheduled for spring 2020. The painter had decided to borrow the three paintings from the Parliament collection, that of the House of Representatives in Rabat, adds the same source.

Noting the disappearance of the works, the artist Bellamine was stunned and remembered the day he received a personal check from the sovereign, issued by Bank Al-Maghrib, and bearing the signature of Hassan Ben Mohammed, claims the same source. According to him, the king had donated several paintings, including his own, to the Moroccan state, recalls the artist in a statement to Le360.

It should be noted that the discovery of the missing paintings coincided with the publication of the memoirs of the oldest civil servant in Parliament, Abdelhay Bennis.