Stern portrait and Picasso seascape among highlights of Strauss & Co’s third International Sale

9 Oct 2025

Strauss & Co will present the third edition of its cross-category art auction The International Sale on Tuesday, 28 October 2025. The two-part auction brings together collectable artworks spanning five centuries, with a distinguished selection of paintings, prints, photography and sculpture by international artists drawn from private South African collections.

Headlining The International Sale is Irma Stern’s Malay (Black Headdress), a sensitive 1946 portrait of a Cape Muslim sitter from the artist’s celebrated golden period. Fresh to market after more than fifty years, the work carries an estimate of R7 – 10 million / US$ 404 018 – 577 168. Stern, a friend of Brücke artist Max Pechstein and founding member of the Novembergruppe, regularly exhibited in Berlin’s leading galleries during the 1920s and 30s. She is currently the subject of an exhibition at Berlin’s Brücke Museum.

This exceptional work will be offered in The International Art: Evening Sale, a live-virtual sale composed of 76 lots. Other artists in the premier session include

Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Joan Miró, Otto Modersohn, Takashi Murakami, Pablo Picasso, Stephen Shore, Édouard Vuillard and Andy Warhol.

“The 2025 edition of The International Sale presents a diverse consignment of top artists, from Italian Renaissance painter Pietro della Vecchia to contemporary figures such as Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, James Austin Murray, David Shrigley and Zambian-born South African Nolan Oswald Dennis,” says Ian Hunter, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co. “The catalogue reflects the collecting tastes of South Africans, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s when the strength of the Rand enabled acquisitions in American and British markets, as well as further afield.”

Highlights include Andy Warhol’s screenprint Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland (estimate R300 000 – 500 000 / US$ 17 445 – 29 075), from his celebrated Reigning Queens series from 1985, alongside a 1976 colour photograph by Stephen Shore, who as a teenager in 1965 began photographing Warhol’s Factory studio. Édouard Vuillard, a member of the French avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, is represented by the pastel Le Lecture Sous Les Arbres A Amfreville (Reading Under the Trees in Amfreville)(estimate R600 000 – 800 000 / $34 895 – 46 532).

Marine scenes dominate across both sessions. Important works in this popular genre include Edwardian painter Montague Dawson’s A Clipper under Full Sail (estimate R500 000 – 700 000 / $29 075 – 40 705) and Pablo Picasso’s 1959 linocut Bacchanale Avec Chevreau Et Spectateur (Couple and Flutist at the Edge of a Lake) (estimate R800 000 – 1 200 000 / $46 532 – 69 795), printed with master printmaker Hidalgo Arnéra. Reflecting the broad tastes and pathways of South African collectors, the catalogue also includes four watercolours by Indian artist Pralhad Anant Dhond, two works capturing the moods of Indian poet and political artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, a vibrant 1992 oil by Brazilian painter Juarez Machado, and three of American contemporary artist James Austin Murray’s signature black oil paintings, prized for their textured surfaces and depth.

Reflecting the broad tastes and pathways of South African collectors, the catalogue also includes four watercolours by Indian artist Pralhad Anant Dhond, two works capturing the moods of Indian poet and political artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, a vibrant 1992 oil by Brazilian painter Juarez Machado, and three of American contemporary artist James Austin Murray’s signature black oil paintings, prized for their textured surfaces and depth.

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