Discriminating buyers fork out for the past
REMNANTS of the country’s dark past are finding their way on to the walls of South African homes as cheeky artworks.
Signs reading “Whites Only” or “Blacks, Coloureds and Asians” that previously littered public spaces have either landed up in museums or with collectors. But private individuals seeking to own these historical pieces of scrap have forked out up to R5 000 apiece.
Peter Cheales, the owner of a Johannesburg store that specialises in vintage memorabilia and occasionally stocks some of the signs, said the buyers had been an interesting bunch.
“The other day I had a black guy come in and buy one of the signs for his white friend.”
A black-owned advertising agency bought a few for its offices.
His store, Retro Blue in Parkhurst, acquired several pieces from a collector who emigrated and did not know what to do with them — they are stocked among old post office, Coca-Cola and neon signs.
Cheales emphasised that he was not stocking the signs to offend, but rather for people to see them as a “demarcation of history” that they could own. “I don’t want to be an apartheid museum. I stock memorabilia across the board.”
To verify their authenticity, the signs are judged on their patina — the effect of oxidation on metals over time. They are also evaluated according to their weight and craftsmanship.
Cheales, founder and previous owner of consumer website Hellopeter.com, said he did not believe there were legal issues around owning the signs as people would generally see them as memorabilia.
The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and the District Six Museum in Cape Town are home to some of the signs. Emilia Potenza, curator of the Apartheid Museum, said the signs had mostly been donated. She described them as collectors’ items because they are hard to come by. HISTORICAL SCRAP: Sophie Malao of Retro Blue with a piece from the apartheid range
People have paid up to R5 000 for a piece of past