Left behind art leads to court

An interim interdict prohibiting their son from selling their valuable paintings has been awarded by the Pretoria High Court to Sam Phillip Sher (80) and his wife Anna Gittel, who now live in La Jolla, California. The interdict prevents Raphael Irvin (41) of Faerie Glen in Pretoria, from selling the seven paintings by famous South African artists. Last November, their son allegedly sold an oil painting by Pieter Wenning for R370 000, and in February one by Gregoire Boonzaaier for R1,1 million. The parents claim that the paintings belong to them, having been part of their art collection built up over the years. When they immigrated to th US, they could not take all their belongings with them. Some of their four sons offered to keep some of the paintings at their homes. Last year they asked one of the sons, Barry, to have an evaluation done on the paintings at Raphael's house. Afterwards, Raphael allegedly sold the paintings without their permission.