Mandela case 'not negotiable'
2005-05-10 12:14
Johannesburg - Former president Nelson Mandela will not negotiate an out-of-court settlement with his ex-lawyer Ismail Ayob regarding the forging of his art works and the embezzlement of money from the sale thereof, his lawyer George Bizos said on Tuesday.
Mandela filed a lawsuit against Ayob, a former associate and a businessman for flogging millions of rand of forgeries of paintings recalling his long years in prison, Bizos said.
"The papers were filed in Johannesburg yesterday," Mandela's long-time lawyer and friend George Bizos, who had defended the icon during a treason trial in the apartheid era, told AFP.
The action targets Ayob and his partner Ross Calder, who are accused of selling fake artworks bearing the magic Mandela moniker.
Bizos said Mandela was not trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with Calder, as the businessman had claimed in a newspaper.
Not negotiable
"There are no negotiations," Bizos said. "He has attempted to negotiate but we have not responded because the stopping of the sale of the works is not negotiable."
Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail was released in 1990 and thereafter decided to collaborate with "an artist to produce limited edition paintings which he signed", Bizos said.
The paintings are clever and partially coloured sketches - depicting a lighthouse in Robben Island labouring under a purple sky, a view of a verdant patch as seen from a cell window with brown bars, a church on the island and a prison dormitory.
The works have been snapped up overseas by such celebrity buyers like US television talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, who forked out $200 000 for a set, according to press reports.
The venture by Mandela was essentially aimed at raising funds for charities bearing his name and espousing various causes including fighting Aids, helping orphans and advancing rural education.
Bizos said Mandela had stopped signing the artworks soon after in the hope that all the copies would be exhausted but it emerged from sources all over the world that Calder and Ayob had "mechanically and photographically reproduced innumerable copies which are being sold at exorbitant prices.
Valued at R575m
"We have no idea what monies have accrued and where they have gone," he said adding that "between R30m to R40m are not accounted for" during Ayob's association with the fundraising scheme.
Calder earlier denied reports that he had made R25m out of the venture and claimed his business retained "only 25% to 30% of the revenue from the sale of Mandela artworks".
He defended this, saying: "I am a businessman, not a philanthropist," and said the sale of the artworks had raised "about R13.2m for various charities around the world", including the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Gary Player Foundation.
According to Calder's website www.touchofmandela.co.za, the total value of the Mandela art sold has a theoretical value of R575m.