Count Labia wins battle- but at a cost

Patrick Burnett

Count Natale Labia has won his bid to have his childhood home returned to him by the government.
Labia had donated the property – the Natale Labia Museum in Muizenberg – to the government in 1985 for use as a museum.
But the museum was later closed in 2004. Labia maintained this was in breach of contract and the property, a 20-room Venetian manor built by his father and overlooking False Bay, should therefore be returned to him by the Department of Public Works.
The museum was built by Labia’s father and he lived in the house during his teenage years in the 1930s. The matter was set down in the Cape High Court for September 9, but was prevented from going to court due to an out of court settlement.
In terms of the settlement, Labia was entitled to take possession of the property and the government undertook to pay to have it transferred to Labia’s name by May 2009. “I am very pleased that it all went well and justice had been done,” said Labia. “I am glad the ownership has come back to me. I’ll look at what is possible to keep it going [as a museum] but there are major problems, especially in terms of parking.” Other issues that formed part of the original case included Labia seeking compensation for the sale of an adjacent piece of land next to the museum, which was sold for R50,000 and later resold, together with other land, for R950,000. Labia was asking for compensation for this land.
However, Labia said in order to avoid going to court he had agreed to fore-go the compensation claim.
Another matter involved compensation for the loss of an 18th Century painting by James Stark. This, he said, was still in the process of negotiation