Former president Nelson Mandela’s ex-lawyer and an art publisher were ordered on Tuesday to stop selling art work purportedly by the elder statesman.
The interdict against lawyer Ismail Ayob and art publisher Ross Calder was granted to Mandela by the Johannesburg High Court.
The two men and companies in which they are involved may no longer market and sell art work in South Africa or abroad that involves the use of Mandela’s name or his reputation, in whatever form.
Calder and Ayob have made undertakings in letters to Mandela’s lawyers — and at the hearing — that they will not oppose the interdict.
Neither they nor Mandela attended the court proceedings. They were represented by separate legal teams.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail under apartheid, decided to collaborate with an artist to produce signed, limited-edition paintings portraying his years in prison.
The project was reportedly aimed at raising funds for charities bearing Mandela’s name. The works were snapped up overseas by celebrity buyers.
Mandela stopped signing the art works soon after, in the hope that all the copies would be exhausted, but it emerged that Calder and Ayob had reproduced an unknown number of copies. — Sapa