Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s art collection worth almost R100m, which was seized this week, features some of the country's most sought-after artworks, including valuable pieces by iconic landscape painter Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef.
Although the Reserve Bank, which seized Jooste’s assets this week, declined to make public the list of works in his collection, Western Cape art dealers and experts told the Sunday Times that he had been collecting Pierneef's work.
A curator who bought and sold work for Jooste in the past said: “His art collection features some of Pierneef's most sought-after artworks.” She later declined to speak to the Sunday Times.
While it is unclear which of Pierneef's works Jooste owns, they have been known to fetch millions of rands at auction. A 1928 painting titled Farm Jonkershoek with Twin Peaks Beyond fetched R20.4m in a June 2017 auction hosted by Strauss & Co in Johannesburg, according to the company’s website.
“Pierneef is considered the master artist of South African landscape and his artworks do well at auctions as he’s the most sought-after artist by collectors of SA modern and contemporary art,” a Western Cape art expert said.
Another Cape Town art expert, who did not want to be named, said Pierneef’s work “depending on size could be worth anything from a couple hundreds of thousands of rand to way more than a million rand”.
In October 2019, Business Day reported how an art sale by Jooste after he decided to reduce his collection had caused a slump in the price of paintings by Pierneef.
Reserve Bank spokesperson Thoraya Pandy told the Sunday Times that the list of Jooste’s seized art would not be made public.
“The SARB does not comment on any investigation ... we are only publishing the attachment order,” Pandy said.
According to the order, Jooste’s art collection has a “realisable value of R98.7m”. The art forms part of assets listed in Jooste’s family trust, Silveroak.
Jooste’s personal effects, which were declared in December 2019 and confirmed in June 2021, include jewellery, paintings and firearms among other seized assets worth a realisable value of R795,400, the order said.
Attached assets included Jooste’s wife Ingrid’s R2,9m Lexus and a VW kombi worth R344,100. The order also granted the preservation of assets which include wine farms, houses, cars, jewellery and funds in the trust's account, which now can’t be used.
Although Jooste may remain in his seized house in Hermanus, and his wine estate Lanzerac is allowed to operate as usual, he is prohibited from selling any shares he owns.
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