An award-winning artist placed a single piece of artwork in a sea of newspapers, a gift that the South African who found it calls a “blessing”!
Johannesburg, South Africa (25 May 2022) – Just like the golden ticket Charlie found in a chocolate bar giving him access to Willy Wonka’s factory in the Roald Dahl classic, a South African opened up her newspaper on Sunday morning and found a piece of artwork from an award-winning artist, opening up her world to the beauty of local art!
Mashudu Ralephata had no idea that the Sunday Times she had picked up was worth far more than the R27.30 she had paid, nor did she know that by taking the newspaper on top, she had just been given a one-of-a-kind artwork by the incredible Blessing Ngobeni.
“Most of the time when I buy a newspaper, I don’t take the top one, I take the middle one, but because I took the top one… I really feel so blessed,” Mashudu Ralephata explained with excitement.
The placement of the original artwork extends Standard Bank’s ongoing support of the local arts scene and community, which has been running for the past four decades. By putting a valuable piece of art into the hands of an everyday South African, Standard Bank hopes to encourage more South Africans to take an interest in the cultural and commercial value of our arts industry, while creating an inspiring moment where dreams were made possible as part of this support.
But getting the artwork into one single newspaper was no easy task!
On Saturday evening, the 21st of May 2022, the entire printing press of that Sunday Times edition was brought to a halt in order for the award-wining artist to select and insert his original artwork into one newspaper on the printing press. The print run then continued, and the 170,000 newspapers were sent all around South Africa.
But just one had the Ngobeni’s artwork hidden inside – said to be worth more than R100,000 – and Ralephata says she feels “Blessed” for having found it.
“I just feel blessed. Because I didn’t even know how many copies were printed – and when I read it was more than 170,000, I knew this is grace that you get once in a lifetime. It only sunk in when we were driving to church in Pretoria after,” Ralephata said.
We don’t know what Standard Bank will do next in their “support of the art scene”, but we know that the idea of a golden ticket possibly being in our next chocolate bar certainly keeps the magic of art alive in all of us!
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