Irma Stern’s Bahora Girl sells for £2.4m ($3.78m) making a world record for a South African artist.
The auction of 151 pictures and sculptures made a total of £6m.
- One of South Africa’s artistic giants, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957), was also well represented in this sale by a masterwork titled `Bosveld’ , a large 75 x 100cm (29 1/2 x 39 3/8in) oil on canvas, it was estimated to sell for £200,000-300,000 but made £714,400.
- Irma Stern, `Still life of Gladioli on a draped table’, signed and dated ‘Irma Stern 1949’, an oil on canvas, estimated to sell for £400,000-600,000, sold for £535,200.
- Alexis Preller. `Apollo Kouros 1’ estimated to sell for £80,000 to £120,000, sold for £252,000.
- Irma Stern, `Still life with bignonia and Port St John’s creeper’, signed and dated ‘Irma Stern 1936’, oil on canvas, estimated at £100,000-150,000, sold for £180,000.
- A world record price was also achieved for Ruth Everard Haden’s `Serenitas fulgens’, an image of distant mountains laced by a winding road. It was estimated to sell for £30,000 to £50,000 but went for £144,000