New Nation -
1 December 2003
A SERIES OF sketches by Nelson Mandela is to be sold at a London art gallery
in a bid to raise money for child victims of HIV in South Africa.
More than 350 charcoal and pastel drawings produced by Mandela, including a
sketch called The Ward that depicts the prison hospital and another entitled The
Guard Tower, are to be sold by London's Belgravia Gallery. The new sketches follow
the release of his first series in 2002.
The artwork, which was produced during Mandela's 17-year term of imprisonment
on Robben Island, is expected to raise more than £5 million for the former
South African president's main charity, the Nelson Mandela Trust.Situated eight miles off
the coast of Cape Town, Robben Island served as South Africa's main prison for
black activists under South Africa's apartheid regime.
