Legal threat over gallery’s priceless art collection

Just two out of 15 exhibition halls at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) are fit for use, with priceless artworks stored in the gallery’s coffee shop and boardrooms, where they could be irreparably damaged, lawyers representing the Friends of the JAG and the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation have warned. In a 10-page letter to Mayor Dada Morero, delivered to city manager Floyd Brink, the lawyers said that if the mayor did not respond to their demand for an urgent meeting to plan the rescue of the artworks and the gallery, they would take the city to court. The Daily Maverick reports that an inspection conducted on 13 August revealed that 9 000 artworks are stored improperly, with only a small fraction on display. Visitor numbers have plummeted, and the continent’s largest and most valuable collection of publicly owned art is in jeopardy. The JAG’s priceless collection includes works by Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Gerard Sekoto, Sydney Khumalo, Jacobus Pierneef and William Kentridge.