The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the City of Johannesburg is extremely concerned about the general state of security in galleries and museums in the City. This comes in the wake of the armed robbery that occurred on Sunday at the Pretoria Art Museum where five art works valued collectively at R17.5m were stolen from the museum's permanent collection.
It is in this light that the DA urges the Departments of Arts, Culture and Heritage and Community Development to take precautionary steps in order to avert a similar situation to the Pretoria Arts Museum theft. In fact the Johannesburg Arts Gallery has already been targeted by criminals, when three valuable artworks were stolen from the facility last year.
The DA in the City has raised the issue of the lax security at various facilities within the city, particularly those that house our valuable heritage, on numerous occasions. We therefore urge the City to tighten security at all the art galleries and museums, as well as to consider locking away valuable art works. We hope that the City of Johannesburg views this robbery as a wake -up call and that they will ensure that all CCTV cameras are operational and that ground security guards are on the alert at all times.
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