Slain Gold Magnate’s art sale may fetch SA record

Nicky Smith

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- The sale of the South African art collection of murdered gold mining magnate Brett Kebble may fetch the most ever paid for a collection of local works.

The collection of 20th-century pieces may raise as much as 100 million rand ($11 million) when it goes under the hammer on May 7, Graham Britz, director of sales of Graham’s Fine Art Gallery in Johannesburg, said in an interview today. The collection includes artists such as Irma Stern, J.H. Pierneef and Walter Battiss.

“People will still pay top dollar for top quality,” said Britz. “There is a lot at stake. We’re aiming for a record price paid for a South African painting. It will also be a record for a collective body of works sold on South African soil in a single session.”

Kebble, died in his car in Johannesburg in September 2005 at the age of 41 after being shot seven times in what the main suspect for his murder has said was an “assisted suicide.” Since his death, JCI Ltd. and RandGold & Exploration Co. Ltd. have lodged a claim seeking 2 billion rand from his estate, saying he illegally sold assets during his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of both companies.

During his 11-year gold mining career Kebble led companies that created two of South Africa’s top four gold producers, and began the development of South Deep, the world’s largest gold deposit. He also helped lead the 1997 acquisition of a 35 percent stake in JCI from Anglo American Plc for $650 million, at the time the biggest attempt after apartheid to boost black ownership of South Africa’s economy.

Top Prices

The collection of 133 items includes Stern’s “Woman Sewing Karos” and “Mother and Child,” Alexis Preller’s “Christ Head” and Maria Magdalena Laubser’s “Portrait of an Old Woman with Head Scarf: Landscape in Background.” It also has pieces from Vladimir Tretchikoff, William Kentridge, J.E.A. Volschenk and Pieter Venning.

The sale, for which a catalog will become available April 16, comes as the auction value increased for South African art this year.

Strauss & Co. raised a record 38 million rand for South African art at an auction held March 8 in Johannesburg, including 7.15 million rand for Stern’s still life portrait “Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot,” according to its Web site.

“Brett knew his art and over the years he has collected quite valuable art,” Jack Rosewitz, deputy chairman of Johannesburg-based Stephan Welz & Co. in Association with Sotheby’s, said in an interview. “He had an enormous collection and South African art is quite hot on the local market.”

Missing Items

London-based Bonhams last month achieved record prices for 12 South African artists, including Laubser’s “Indian Girl With Poinsettias,” which sold for 276,000 pounds ($402,546), beating pre-sale estimates of 100,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds, while a piece by Preller sold for more than double the highest predicted amount, according its Web Site.

Kebble’s Stern painting of “Woman Sewing Karos,” a 1929 oil on canvas has been “conservatively valued” at between 5 million rand and 7 million rand, Britz said. The most ever paid for a Stern work was 7.39 million rand for her 1946 piece “Congolese Woman” at a December 2007 Christie’s International Plc auction, which included the “hammer price” and extra charges, Britz said. Preller’s “Christ Head” has been valued between 2 million rand and 3 million rand, Britz said.

A team of forensic investigators is still trying to find as many as 15 items missing from the collection, Hans Klopper, the managing director of Independent Corporate Recovery Advisors, said in a phone interview from Stellenbosch, South Africa. Klopper is winding down Kebble’s estate, which includes 10 million rand of Kebble’s personal debts, such as mortgages and car finance.

Galleries will be put on alert for the missing items and rewards may be offered if pieces are returned, he said. Kebble in 2003 started the Brett Kebble Art Awards, which his family stopped after his death.

The administrators are also “chasing approximately 35 million rand to 40 million rand” missing from the estate, Klopper said. “These were things such as donations and payments made at a time when his estate was hopelessly insolvent.”

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