‘Space liberating’ auction causes concern in Eastern Cape

By Patrick Burnett

A row has erupted between Eastern Cape art enthusiasts and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality over the auction of art works from the Nelson Mandela Metropolititan Art Museum, which is run by the municipality.
The municipality maintains that the art works sold did not belong to the museum and that stringent procedures were followed in disposing of them, but a former director of the museum has questioned these claims.

In a statement dealing with the auction, which took place in July and raised over R30,000, municipal spokesperson Lourens Schoeman said the museum had “scrupulously” followed South African Museum Association (Sama) professional guidelines on disposals.

“The process was started two years ago when a public appeal was made for owners to remove their artworks or to give the art museum information about them,” said Schoeman. He said the works earmarked for disposal had been advertised via Sama, who had posted information to all its members.

After consulting the budget and treasury, the works had finally been sent for auction. Schoeman said the sale had not been motivated by financial difficulties, but that the museum had been “desperate to liberate storage space which had been taken up for many years by artworks abandoned at the museum”.

But one art administrator in the province said: “I am very concerned about what is happening to collections in South Africa. There are ominous rumblings of things being lost and destroyed. There is a lack of interest in anything from the colonial period, but these works are also a part of the rainbow nation.”

And Clayton Holliday, a previous director of the King George VI Art Gallery, which became the Nelson Mandela Metropolititan Art Museum, said the works had been owned by the council and become the responsibility of the gallery. “Like lost waifs and strays they were taken in, most restored and once beautiful again, became part of our heritage.”

Holliday said he had recognised most the works out up for auction when he had seen them two days before the sale. However, he said he had not recognised two 32cm by 22cm Victorian landscapes by W. Manners (1892), which must have been acquired by the gallery after he had left. “They should never have been sold,” he said.
“That art was sold to ‘liberate storage space’, sold for R33,500, should make the community restless and uncomfortable. How safe are our collections and what are the safeguards for the future?” He said there should be “concern” about the disposal of items from the musuem and about the care of all heritage material.

Holliday said while Schoeman had said the sale had followed Sama guidelines, he had not seen these even though he had been a life member of the association. Schoeman had not responded to requests for information about the guidelines at the time of finalising this article, but a Sama official confirmed the existence of the guidelines.

Holliday said he was not satisfied that advertising had only been done through Sama because only paid up members received Sama publications.

“I never saw the advert or I might have responded,” he said.
Holliday also raised questions about a hanging sculptor in the City Hall by Edouardo Villa, which he said had been destroyed.

In addition, he asked how a Frank Rogaly painting in the Opera House by Neil Rodger had been removed from its place of honour.