Mandela portrait disappears
A SOUTH African artist has hired a top New York private eye to help the police crack the mystery of his missing Nelson Mandela painting that recently disappeared from a Manhattan storage facility.
Conor Mccreedy, who captured US television giant Time Warner Cable’s trademark on canvas, is frantically trying to trace the whereabouts of his prized R100 000 Mandela portrait, which took him about three years to complete.
Mccreedy, 26, has commissioned the services of private investigator Frank Shea to help the New York police department to find the A4-size portrait, which he sold to a Johannesburg businessman and art collector. The buyer has since been refunded his money until the painting is located.
Mccreedy’s unique blue and white artwork aroused the interest of David Bowie’s official photographer, Mick Rock, and made him the youngest person to hold a solo exhibition at New York’s prestigious National Arts Club.
Speaking from Manhattan this week, Mccreedy, who is also famed for painting a giant mural bearing the name “Mandela” on his apartment building, described the theft as “bizarre”.
“The painting was not a commission. The collector liked it, wanted it and so he bought it, knowing that I would be bringing it back with me to South Africa on the plane as it is a very small painting,” Mccreedy said. He discovered the painting and some of his sketches had gone missing when he and his team went to retrieve the painting from the storage space three weeks ago.
“The NYPD, Interpol and my private investigator went public with this a few days ago.”
The oddest part, Mccreedy found, were the “replacement” — original images of Mick Jagger, John Lennon and the Eiffel Tower.
Shea, who heads the New York private investigations firm Alpha Group Investigations, confirmed: “We have been retained by Mccreedy for the purpose of locating the missing artwork. We do believe the painting is still in New York."