Slain mining magnate, Brett Kebble, may have siphoned off the best works from the JCI corporate collection for his own personal art collection, Noseweek reports. This after senior executives who attended the May auction of Kebble's art collection recognised several of the works on sale as having once appeared on the walls of the JCI. The company's current Chief Executive, Peter Gray, is to order a forensic investigation into the provenance of certain works, which are suspected to have been purchased by JCI, not Kebble.

JCI already had an established art collection when Kebble joined their ranks in 1997, having invested in works by Walter Battiss and George Pemba in the 80s, Grey reports. When evaluator Anthony Wiley was brought in to price the collection in 2006 however, there was very little of value left. Wiley reported that in several cases, the frames were more valuable than the paintings.

Gallerist Mark Read of the Everard Read Gallery, who sold Kebble many paintings over the years, also reported a somewhat murky situation around the dealings of Kebble and the JCI. "We had so much trouble, about nine different invoices per picture. They had to be invoiced to a company, then he'd say no, do it to another." When pressed to reveal the contents of the invoices, however, Read declined, saying that his business with clients was confidential, and that the invoices would be destroyed.

Noseweek identifies three of the works recently auctioned by gallerist and auctioneer Graham Britz, as having once hung in the JCI's corporate collection. The paintings, including a Walter Battiss, and two works by George Pemba, fetched R 1 150 000 on the May auction, a sum which JCI will no doubt seek to extract from the insolvent Kebble estate.

It is also rumoured that several high-profile works from both Kebble's and JCI's collections were auctioned in London in 2006, under the radar of the estate trustees.

To read more go to www.noseweek.co.za and www.arttimes.co.za