Mama Winnie's death exposes international trade in counterfeit photos: report

13 April 2018 - 08:45
By Staff Reporter
The piracy of photos on an international scale is hurting the estates of the select few photographers who were given access to the Mandelas' lives. File photo.
Image: James Oatway/Sunday Times The piracy of photos on an international scale is hurting the estates of the select few photographers who were given access to the Mandelas' lives. File photo.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s death has laid bare a roaring international trade in counterfeit photographs implicating both rogue merchants and reputable agents‚ the M&G reported on Friday.

The newspaper said its reporters caught one man in America acknowledging in a taped phone conversation that he was selling a “picture of a picture”‚ and a Frenchwoman‚ whose modus operandi seems to be to travel to the world’s museums "to pursue a roaring trade" in hawking memorabilia and historical photographs.

The piracy is hurting the estates of the select few photographers who were given access to the Mandelas' lives‚ and other era-defining moments in South Africa - such as Alf Kumalo‚ Peter Magubane and Sam Nzima‚ the report said.