Art Market Monitor

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South Africa’s Strauss & Co. Has $7m Sale Led By Pierneef, Preller, Stern & Kentridge

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South Africa’s Strauss & Co. held their Winter sale last night and pulled in a very healthy R89m or nearly $7m. The house sold 87% of the lots on offer further indicating the strength of the South African art market in the face of a broader weak economy and falling currency value.

The star lot of the evening was by JH Pierneef, whose work set a new record when the previously unknown painting,Farm Jonkershoek with Twin Peaks Beyond, Stellenbosch, sold well above the R6-8m estimate to make R20.46m ($1.6m) which also marked the second highest price for a painting sold at auction in South Africa.

Here’s Straus & Co’s recap of the sales action:

  • Pierneef dominated the sale: lot 14, a linocut titled Hardekoolboom, Transvaal (Nilant 74), came in at R193 256, way beyond R25 000 – R30 000 estimate. Bome (Nilant 75) which exceeded its R12 000 – R18 000 estimate by fetching R120 000. Lot 16, a third linocut, fetched R140 000, way above the high estimate. Extensive Landscape, Northern Drakensburg which fetched R3 410 400, and his Storm over the Lowveld brought in R1 250 480, well above the high estimate of R700 000.
  • Alexis Preller’s Still Life with Thangka and Pomegranates came in at number two of the night fetching a total of R7 502 880, above the high estimate R5 000 000.
  • Irma Stern, whose enigmatic portrait in oil, Malay Woman, fetched R5 456 640, beyond the given estimate of R3 000 000 – R4 000 000.
  • William Kentridge who held four places on the night’s top ten sales. His Dancing Couple brought in R4 902 480 well above the given high estimate of R2 000 000, whilst his Untitled Drawing Towards Responsible Hedonism performed similarly well, coming in at R3 978 800, comfortably between estimates.

Strauss & Co. South African = 70.6m ZAR ($5.6m)

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Strauss & Co. held its Summer 2017 sale in the Southern hemisphere making R70.6m a record with 84.43% of the lots sold. As usual for the category, the top lots were works by Irma Stern, including the Young Arab (above) that sold for R13.6m. Four of the top 10 works were also by Stern.

Strauss Co 317

Strauss & Co. South African = $4.125m

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irma-stern-woman-with-a-blue-headscarf-204k-usd

Strauss & Co. issued this press release explaining their results:

The percentage sold by value and lot combined was 80.5%, with a total realised of R55 million ($4.125m)

The star lots were a series of intimately scaled Alexis Prellers formerly owned by prominent Johannesburg collectors Liselotte and Walter Hardebeck. A rare Preller portrait titled Woman with Red Hair / Ophelia sold for R2 273 600 after intense bidding. The sale price was ten times the median estimate.

strauss-nov-7-2016Continue Reading

South Africa’s Auctioneers Seek to Stabilize the Market

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April2013

South Africa’s Financial Mail gives a tour of the SA auction house landscape casually mentioning that Bonhams is thought to have us$17m in annual turnover:

As prices and the flurry have begun to settle since the 2011 peak, though, auction houses have begun quietly assessing how best to manage and sustain the interest and stabilise the market.

In SA, there are two main auction houses, Strauss & Co and Stephan Welz & Co, followed by Pretoria’s Bernardi Auctioneers, which have handled the bulk of the big sales in SA recent years.

Internationally, Bonhams in London remains the only major auction house with a dedicated SA art department, but could be facing some competition from Sotheby’s, which is expanding its African department (and market), and a new online upstart, Artnet Auctions.

According to Ruarc Peffers, Strauss & Co’s senior paintings specialist, of the auction house’s R160m turnover last year, at least R130m was SA art. “There is no question that there is a resurgence in SA art, which started about four or five years ago, and it continues to resonate,” says Peffers.

“African art, especially SA art, is very much in vogue now. Maybe it’s because SA is becoming re-engaged with the international community,” he says. “There is still the hint of the exotic and the suggestion of darkness that [collectors] find appealing.” The record price set for an Irma Stern at auction in SA was by Strauss & Co in 2011, when Two Arabs, an oil on canvas (in the original Zanzibar frame) sold for more than R21m.

Art Market: Auction Houses Reflect SA (Financial Mail)

Strauss South African Art (May) = $4.99m

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Vladimir Tretchikoff - The Dying Swan

Sale total  R47 308 775 , 76.09% lot sell-through rate

  1. Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, Extensive Landscape, Lydenburg, Northern Drakensberg Beyond (R5 000 000 – 7 000 000) 5 911 360
  2. Cecil Edwin Frans Skotnes, The Last Supper (R300 000 – 400 000) 1,818,880
  3. William Joseph Kentridge, Female Nude (R1 000 000 – 1 500 000) 1 591 520
  4. William Joseph Kentridge (R1 200 000 – 1 600 000) 1,250,480
  5. Irma Stern, Proteas (R1 000 000 – 1 500 000) 1,136,800
  6. Vladimir Griegorovich Tretchikoff, Alicia Markova “The Dying Swan” (R800 000 – 1 200 000) 1,079,960
  7. Alexis Preller, Gold Primavera (R600 000 – 900 000) 966,280
  8. Vladimir Griegorovich Tretchikoff, Balinese Girl (R700 000 – 900 000) 966 280
  9. Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, Extensive Landscape, Eastern Freestate (R600 000 – 900 000) 852 600
  10. Alexis Preller, Choros (R600 000 – 900 000) 852,600

www.straussart.co.za

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