$2m South African art thieves had shopping list
Date November 14, 2012
Gerard Sekoto's Street Scene, one of the five paintings stolen at the weekend from the Pretoria Art Museum. Photo: AP
JUST one thing went wrong for the thieves during a weekend theft from the Pretoria Art Museum, which netted about $US2 million ($A1.9 million) worth of famous South African works.
One of the paintings was too big to fit with the three robbers into their getaway car, a Toyota Avanza.
So they left the piece, Two Malay Musicians by Irma Stern, on the pavement and sped off with five other works.
The robbery exposed the low level of security at the museum, which contains a number of South Africa's most important works of art. The museum's closed-circuit television system was out of order at the time of the robbery, according to South African media reports.
According to police, the thieves arrived posing as an art lecturer and two students and paid the low admission fee. Once inside, the men held up a security guard at gunpoint and pulled out a list of the works they wanted.
In addition to the Stern painting, they took works by Gerard Sekoto, J. H. Pierneef, Maggie Laubser and Hugo Naude.
Some of South Africa's best-known artists' works, including those by William Kentridge, Walter Battiss and Robert Hodgins, were left untouched.
''I doubt it's because of overseas interest,'' said Stefan Hundt, art adviser at Sanlam Private Investments. ''It's usually South Africans or expat South Africans who buy these artists.''
In 1997 an Irma Stern would sell for about 200,000 rand ($A22,000), Mr Hundt said. ''Now people are prepared to pay up to 20 million rand.''
