No obvious damage to recovered Pretoria art
2012-11-13 17:24
Pretoria - Four of the five paintings stolen from the Pretoria Art Museum at the weekend have been found on a bench in a cemetery in Port Elizabeth, police said on Tuesday.
Brigadier Marinda Mills said the paintings were discovered by a member of the dog unit around 01:30.
"The officer was contacted by an informer in the morning. The [police] member went to the cemetery and found the paintings in a small private cemetery in Sunridge Park, behind the Dutch Reformed Church," said Mills.
"Police forensic and crime scene experts are still combing the area as we speak. Verification of the art must still be done, but from a layman’s view it appears to be the same pieces that were taken in Pretoria."
Mills said the recovered paintings appeared to be Maggie Laubser's Cat and Petunias (1936); JH Pierneef's Eland and bird (1961); Irma Stern's Fishing boats (1931) and Hugo Naude's .
The painting still missing was Gerald Sekoto's Street Scene (1939), worth about R7m.
Mills said there was no obvious evidence of damage to the artworks.
According to Eye Witness News, curators at the Pretoria Art Museum are studying pics of the recovered art to confirm that the items are authentic.
The Pretoria Art Museum was provisionally closed following the Sunday morning armed robbery in which the paintings, together worth about R17.5m, were stolen.
Re-open
Tshwane mayoral spokesperson Pieter de Necker said the museum would re-open on November 20.
"The art museum has taken precautionary steps by removing other valuable pieces until the police have completed their investigation," he said.
"The city will tighten security at the museum."
De Necker said the five artworks were stolen from the museum's permanent collection on Sunday.
"Three men, under the pretence of being students and their art lecturer, asked to view specific pieces.
"After they were shown the paintings, they then tied up the museum official at gunpoint and took off with six paintings," he said.
"They left one painting [by] Irma Stern behind. Presumably because it was too big to fit into their [getaway] car."
The painting left behind was Irma Stern's Two Malay Musicians, valued at about R12m.
- SAPA
