Repatriated Stern painting and unique Baselitz linocut lead Strauss & Co’s fourth International Sale  

7 Oct 2026

CAPE TOWN – The fourth edition of Strauss & Co’s annual live-virtual International Sale features 126 lots by artists from 30 countries spanning five continents. Taking place on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 at 7pm, the sale is anchored by important works by Georg Baselitz, Erik Laubscher, Shirin Neshat and Irma Stern. Stern’s 1935 portrait Two Women (estimate R6 – 8 million / US$369 117 – 492 156) was recently repatriated from Europe, where it had been held in a private collection for decades. 

The International Sale encompasses four centuries of international art collected during different periods of South African history, from seascape painters Manolis Calliyannis, Malcolm de Chazal and Gerard Devoud to a woodcut by Kitano Tsunetomi, a celebrated habitué of the pleasure quarters of Kyoto and Osaka. Much of the material in the sale derives from South African collections, ranging from 17th-century British, Dutch and Flemish paintings to post-2000 editions by Mr Brainwash, Jim Dine, Isaac Julien, Jeff Koons and Lucas Samaras. 

“The diverse catalogue, which includes two works by the renowned German-Jewish Impressionist Joseph Oppenheimer, depicting Ascot and Kensington Gardens, speaks to the identity of a colony that became a country. South Africa’s geographic position and diverse trading history have contributed to an eclecticism that extends beyond art from Britain, Europe and North America. The catalogue incorporates many threads, currents and themes, from graphics by David Hockney, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, John Piper and Frank Stella with attractive estimates to high-value photographs by Malick Sidibé of Mali and Carlos Garaicoa of Cuba. The strength of this sale lies in its diversity and eclecticism.” 

Ian Hunter, Head of Sale, Strauss & Co

South African artists Irma Stern and Erik Laubscher both received their formal training abroad, each introducing new styles to the South African lexicon. Stern’s Two Women, also known as Zulu Sisters, was exhibited in London in 1937, where it first changed hands. Part of a loosely connected group of double portraits inspired by her many travels, the work is redolent of Stern’s earlier Expressionist style of the 1920s, particularly in its tonalities and use of black to delineate her figures, as well as its evocation of youth and innocence. 

Erik Laubscher’s recto-verso painting Young Family / Construction from 1954–59 (estimate R3–5 million / US$184 559–307 598) is a fine example of his early School of Paris style. Laubscher travelled to Paris in 1950 and secured studio space at the Académie Montmartre. Although he was not a pupil of its director, Fernand Léger, Laubscher spoke fondly of Léger’s presence and guidance in the studios. The work was gifted to his daughter. 

Iranian-American artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat is represented by an untitled photographic portrait from 1997 linked to her celebrated two-channel black-and-white film installation Turbulent (1998), for which she received the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. Neshat returned to Venice in May this year to premiere a new film trilogy, Do U Dare!, at Palazzo Marin. She is currently directing Verdi’s opera Aida at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. 

German painter, printmaker and sculptor Georg Baselitz famously rejected abstraction in favour of the figure. His work rarely appears at auction in Africa. Das Pferd (estimate R900 000–R1.2 million / US$55 368–73 823) is a unique linocut from an edition of six, each individually hand-coloured. The horse is a recurring motif in Baselitz’s work, drawing on his childhood memories of rural Saxony. 

Ian Hunter, Head of Sale at Strauss & Co, will lead a walkabout on Saturday 17 September at 10:30 for 11am discussing key artists and artistic currents represented in the sale. On Sunday 18 October Ian Hunter and Leigh Leyde (Senior Art Specialist) will be in conversation: The International Sale: Four centuries of art from 30 countries, in one room. 

The International Sale coincides with two further live sales dedicated to jewellery and silver.