MBOMBELA – A painting by the famous artist Adriaan Boshoff, which went missing sometime between 2007 and 2012, was found in the city last Friday.
Worth R2,1 million, it is one of many which reportedly disappeared from the care of his daughter, Ms Louise Boshoff, while she was custodian of the artworks during the time they were displayed in her Hartbeespoort art gallery.
The story of Adriaan Boshoff’s paintings going missing made national media headlines in 2012. The artworks were each valued at between
R58 000 and R850 000. At the time it was widely speculated his daughter, Louise, had a hand in the disappearance of these artworks. She claimed innocence and directed all media enquiries to her lawyer.
During the same period, it came to light that Louise ran into financial difficulties after her father’s death, and that she had applied for the liduidation of Adlou Gallery. The order was granted but replaced by a winding-up order in 2013. This meant that the liquidators had to conduct financial inquiries regarding the gallery’s affairs.
The gallery’s list of creditors included people who placed valuable paintings and other works of art in Louise’s care. The parties wanted remuneration for their losses from the winding-up process. Procedurally the artworks had to be placed in storage by the liquidators and it was then discovered they had gone missing.
Louise’s refusal to reveal the whereabouts of these artworks was placed on record during financial inquiries, which she failed to attend.
During one of these financial sittings, information suggested that one of the paintings might be in Mbombela. The painting, named “Cosmos Fields”, which was owned by Mr and Ms Gerhard Heyneke, was apparently sold to Ms Polly Botha from Mbombela. On Friday, the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court ordered the sheriff to confiscate the painting from Botha and hand it to a representative of the liquidators who had to transport it to a storage facility in Pretoria.
After a four-hour struggle to gain access to Botha’s property, remove the 105 centimetre by 161 centimetre painting from the wall, and pack it safely, “Cosmos Fields” was eventually on its way to Pretoria.
During the Adlou Gallery’s financial inquiries, three documents surfaced that were relevant to the transaction between Louise and Botha. The first was a 2008 valuation of “Cosmos Fields”. Louise herself did the evaluation and priced the painting at R2,1 million. The second was a letter to Botha where she (Louise Boshoff) requested her to effect payment of more than R200 000 that was still outstanding on the painting’s purchase price.
The third was a power of attorney document authorising local art dealer, Mr Mario Bruno, to act as her agent and to receive any outstanding money.
Yesterday Bruno told Lowvelder that the power of attorney was a falsified document and that he reserved any further comments. He directed the newspaper to his lawyer.
Botha’s laywer, Mr Henk Frey, said there was nothing untoward concerning the purchase of the painting and that his client was shocked when the sheriff appeared on her doorstep. They intend to have the court order overturned as they believe the application contained faulty information.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Louise remain a mystery. After she failed to turn up at her gallery’s financial inquiries, the sheriff of the Pretoria High Court attempted to trace her. He reported that there was no sign of her at her residence in Elandsfontein.
Liquidator, Mr Victor Gravato, described Louise in one of his affidavits submitted to court, “She has the ability to disappear when required to do so”.
He also confirmed that various criminal actions had been instituted against her but that the outcome of these had not been confirmed.
Adriaan Boshoff was born in the 1930s in Pretoria. He was a self-taught painter of seascapes, still life, figures and landscapes.
Boshoff worked in oils and his impressionistic style is known worldwide. His work has been collected and exhibited all over the world. After his death in 2007, some art enthusiasts who owned Adriaan Boshoff artworks, decided to store their paintings in his daughter’s art gallery where many went missing.
