Bling king sends Tretchi home
BRITISH diamond tycoon Laurence Graff credits Vladimir Tretchikoff ’ s iconic painting Chinese Girl with stirring his interest in art when he was a child.
And now, decades later, he is returning the painting to South Africa. It will join a vast collection of art at his Delaire Graff Estate near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape — and it will go on public display.
Graff, 74, bought Chinese Girl , one of the world’s most recognisable paintings, for a record R13.7-million in London last week. “It is one of the first pieces of art I remember noticing as a boy,” he told the Sunday Times. “At that time, reproductions of the picture were extremely popular.”
British media have dubbed Graff “the king of bling” and “Britain’s richest living art buyer ”. He bought Delaire in 2003, gave it a makeover and decorated it with more than 100 works of art.
Graff sits on an executive committee for the Guggenheim Museum in New York and is a member of the international council of the Tate Modern in London. His Graff Leadership Centre in Lesotho has raised millions of rands through donations from top artists, including Banksy and Damien Hirst.
One of his Cape estate’s key pieces is a charcoal drawing created as part of a collaboration between William Kentridge, Deborah Bell and Robert Hodgins.
Others include four vivid oils by Cape Town-based Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi. Staff said it was yet to be decided where exactly Chinese Girl would be placed.
Marketing manager Tanja Mackay-Davidson said Graff wanted families to be able to enjoy art in an “accessible, relaxed space”.
“Our collection includes pieces by established artists like William Kentridge and relatively unknown artists discovered by Mr Graff. The
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’ South African artist Lionel Smit is especially exciting for him at the moment,” she said.
Visitors to the farm have included Hollywood stars Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart and Jamie Foxx.
Tretchikoff escaped from Soviet Russia and immigrated to South Africa after World War 2. He lived in Bishopscourt and was often spotted driving a large pink Cadillac. He died in 2006.