South Africa’s Strauss & Co. held their sale of South African art today scoring a new record for Irma Stern of 21m South African Rand (US$2.6m.) That price was just above the low estimate for the work. After the Stern record, it was a long way down to the next two Stern works. Followed by a Pierneef with a British royal provenance that did substantially better than its estimate. The top ten lots follow:

294	Irma Stern  Two Arabs	R21,166,000
299	Irma Stern  Mending the Nets	R  2,785,000
300	Irma Stern  Still Life with Marigolds and Pears	R  2,005,200
264	Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning From Grove Road, Claremont, with Devil’s Peak	R  1,559,600
251	Jacob Hendrik Pierneef Karoo	R  1,225,400
312	Alexis Preller Boys Bathing	R  1,058,300
263	Pieter Willem Frederick Wenning The Bridge, Rondebosch	R      891,200
387	Jane Alexander  something’s going down, 1993-94	R      802,080
361	William Joseph Kentridge  Blue Head	R      779,800
270	Dorothy Moss Kay  Self Portrait with Red and White Scarf	R      690,680

Strauss & Co.