David joked that one day I would have to sell his extensive wine collection, catalogued on a humungous spreadsheet with all the information you could ever imagine. His lifelong passion for wine from all corners of the world, and his generosity, helped develop a culture of fine wine in South Africa and beyond. With sadness,
In what can only be read as an affirmation of South African art and artists, Strauss & Co posted a new record turnover for an individual online-only sale. Timed to coincide with its parallel participation in the virtual edition of the recent RMB Turbine Art Fair (27 August – 2 September), Strauss & Co’s fifth online-only auction of 2020 grossed R7 288 495.
As is tradition, Strauss & Co, Africa’s premier auction house, opens its annual programme with curated auctions, free exhibitions and public talks aligned to the energy and focus of February in Cape Town. Central to this programme and coinciding with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, the leading international art fair on the African continent,
Strauss & Co is delighted to announce that its forthcoming North/South sale (8–11 November 2020) will include a session exclusively devoted to the holdings of the Tasso Foundation Collection of important South African art assembled by the late Giulio Bertrand. Italian-born Giulio Bertrand (1927–2018) is best known to South Africans for his transformative activities at Morgenster Estate in Somerset West.
Over many years, the Cape Town art collector Georgina Jaffee has assembled an unusually focused and expansive collection of contemporary art guided by a singular conceptual premise: hair as subject, material and metaphor. Spanning painting, photography, sculpture, textile works and even hybrid installations, and uniquely also foregrounding African and Afro-descendant perspectives, the collection is distinguished
Strauss & Co is pleased to announce details of its forthcoming multi-day live virtual auction of art, decorative arts, jewellery and fine wine, due to take place from Sunday, 8 November to Wednesday, 11 November 2020. This exciting bi-city initiative is titled NORTH/SOUTH and replaces the company’s traditional end-of-year city sales in Johannesburg and Cape Town with a consolidated virtual sale involving both offices simultaneously. While new in format and duration, NORTH/SOUTH is a showcase of everything Strauss & Co does best.
The culmination of Strauss & Co’s February energetic programme of auctions, exhibitions and talks, the live-virtual sale Portway to Cohen: A Collector’s Legacy and Other Properties (21 February 2026 at 6pm) brings together a focused selection of contemporary South African painting assembled by a discerning worldly collector, complemented by works from other properties. The sale
Strauss & Co’s October online-only auction, which is now open and runs until 8pm on Monday 19 October, offers a cornucopia of pleasures. The lot offerings encompass collectable art, jewellery and accessories, and fine wine. Highlights include Kanonkop’s CWG Paul Sauer, the ne plus ultra of South African wines, as well as luxurious ladies’ silk scarves and gentlemen’s silk ties by Hermès.
Strauss & Co, in partnership with Brickfield Canvas, is honoured to present Faces of Cape Town: Portraits by Irma Stern, a capsule exhibition opening on 14 February. Showcasing a selection of portraits drawn from the Irma Stern Trust Collection, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter Stern’s deeply human depictions of the people who
Emerging Painting Invitational – the pan-African emerging painting prize, launched by the Emerging African Art Galleries Association (EAAGA) in 2019 in Harare, Zimbabwe – like all international art events, faced a dilemma in 2020. The objective of EPI is to bring international attention and professional support to the widest diversity of young painters across Africa as well as to spotlight different art communities across the continent through the unique exhibition/conference/prize/art fair model.
