Mandela wins first round in battle over prison art

NELSON Mandela yesterday won the first round in his legal battle to prevent his former lawyer of three decades, Ismail Ayob, from selling artworks in his name.

The former South African president sought the injunction in Johannesburg’s High Court after alleging last month that his charities had been robbed by Ayob, who was mysteriously sacked last year, of at least 2.6 million. Mr Mandela also alleges that his signature has been forged on countless lithographs by the lawyer and his South African business partner, Ross Calder, an apartheid-era policeman and ad agency owner.

The injunction is the prelude to a major court action in August, when Mr Mandela’s lawyers will seek the removal of Ayob from all the 86-year-old liberation icon’s charitable trusts and demand a full accounting of where funds have gone from the sale of Mr Mandela’s artworks. Most of the artworks consist of simple sketches of Robben Island, where he spent more than two decades of his life after being sentenced to life imprisonment for plotting to overthrow South Africa’s former white supremacist government.

Mr Mandela’s close friend Oprah Winfrey, the American television talk show supremo, snapped up one set of sketches signed by the Nobel Peace Prize winner for $200,000 (110,000). Other celebrity buyers of Mr Mandela’s artwork include Prince Charles, the former United States president Bill Clinton, the Sultan of Oman, footballer David Beckham and actor Samuel L Jackson.

Mr Mandela collaborated with an artist helper to produce signed, limited lithographic paintings portraying his years in prison. The project was intended to raise funds for Mr Mandela’s charities, notably in support of children and the 5.6 million South Africans infected with HIV/AIDS.

Ayob initially had Mr Mandela’s permission to market his sketches and signed hand prints. But Ayob’s choice of Mr Calder as his business partner increasingly worried Mr Mandela’s team of advisers. The duo established a web of companies, including Unity Publishing International, to market Mr Mandela’s output.

The lithographs of the first five Mandela sketches went on show at the high-status Belgravia Gallery in central London in September 2002. Mr Mandela sketched 21 Robben Island views after a visit to the island, in the cold Antarctic waters of the Benguela Current off Cape Town, in early 2002.

Another 500 signed lithographic copies of each of the sketches, selling for as much as 15,000, went to the Belgravia Gallery and a similar number to top galleries elsewhere, including New York and Paris.

Mr Mandela appears to have tried to settle the dispute behind closed doors after sacking Ayob in March last year.