Fraudulent artwork: Who is fooling who?

There is more than meets the eye in the pending case over the disputed artwork of Thabiso Tsholofelo. 

Now as the plot thickens it appears that Abednico Sechaba has something to hide. While initially Sechaba had claimed that he bought the painting from its creator, Tsholofelo, the latter denies that and maintains. In fact, he says that he sold it to a white man who was soon travelling back to his home country. When first contacted Sechaba said he had heard of the issue through the grapevine and requested for the disputed picture to jog his memory.

However, this week he was uncooperative with this publication saying he would not assist any further as it seems the newspaper knows a lot. However when probed  by the Coordinator of Thapong Visual Arts Centre Reginald Bakwena on the issue, after contacting both artists, Sechaba’s response to Bakwena was that he bought the painting from Tsholofelo. On the other hand Tsholofelo has continuously denied ever selling his painting to Sechaba. Sechaba later told Bakwena that having bought the art piece he was inspired by Tsholofelo’s work and decided to produce something similar.

This is yet another shocking revelation because he did not do this. Instead he concealed the signature of the original piece and put his small square sized piece bearing his signature. Bakwena says his investigation has gone as far as that and would be easier if he had the physical painting at hand to make an objective conclusion. “I would not want to come to any conclusions without having seen the painting,” he said this week. On the other hand, Style has found out that although Sechaba denies ever sending someone in Australia to get his painting from the High Commission, he did when the contract of his trusted contact at the High Commission came to an end.