It has been said that artists do not reach true greatness until after they are dead.

Immortality often walks hand in hand with those who pour out their lives in a fleeting urge to express the beauty they see around them. So it was with Pieter Wenning who came from Holland to the mundane occupation of bookseller's clerk in Pretoria.

The urge to paint became an obsession but it was only at the age of 42 that he was able to devote all his time to art. Already in failing health, he had only six years of feverish and uninterrupted activity before dying in poverty. His legacy of some 300 oils and 1,000 watercolours and drawings captured the respect of the nation and prices rocketed in one of the most sensational treasure hunts in the history of South Africa.