“Notwithstanding a challenging global backdrop, Strauss & Co delivered another year of steady growth in 2025, driven by an expanded auction programme, strong demand for exceptional works, and the continued diversification of our collecting categories. The energy in our salerooms, the depth of participation across digital and live platforms, and the success of our international and regional
A message from Chairperson, Frank Kilbourn
• Online art sales offer incredible value in modern and contemporary segments • Accessible price points offer collectors variety • Depth of work reflects market vitality • Major artists like Stern, Kentridge and Nhlengethwa on offer November 2025: Strauss & Co has launched its year-end auctions, with an impressive variety and choice of modern and contemporary art across themed sessions running between 20November and 8 December. Five
Strauss & Co is very pleased to announce details of its much-anticipated autumn sale, due to be held on Sunday 10 and Monday 11 May. This important two-day sale includes paintings by several important twentieth-century moderns, including Irma Stern, items from three notable single-owner collections of decorative arts and a Bordeaux-themed sale of rare wines from South Africa and France.
Travel was central to the life and work of Walter Battiss, JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller and Irma Stern, four important twentieth-century moderns whose work forms the core of Strauss & Co’s superb art offering to be auctioned online on Monday, 11 May. The change in format of Strauss & Co’s autumn sale of important South African moderns was necessitated by the current Covid-19 outbreak.
Johannesburg: Strauss & Co is proud to announce the outstanding success of a rare and historically significant body of early work by internationally acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge, presented during its November Johannesburg Auction Week. The suite of 15 wildlife drawings, commissioned in 1985 for Mobil’s (now Engen) Cape Town headquarters, represents a pivotal moment in Kentridge’s development as
Strauss & Co is proud to announce the auction of three notable single-owner collections in its online sale of 19th Century, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, Jewellery and Wine, due to be held on Monday, 11 May. The revised virtual format was necessitated by the current Covid-19 outbreak.
Johannesburg: Strauss & Co’s November Auction Week offers a curated selection of South African modern and contemporary art from the early 1900s to the present across multiple auctions. Auction Week runs from 17 to 19 November 2025, with daily public viewing. The week begins with the sale of a rare suite of 15 early wildlife drawings by William Kentridge commissioned in 1985 for Mobil’s Cape Town headquarters
Strauss & Co’s forthcoming March sale in Cape Town includes a fine selection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics and works art, English silverware and Cape furniture from two distinguished single-owner collections. The impeccable consignments from the Dr J.R. and Mary Strong Collection and Dr Johan Bolt Collection showcase artisanal traditions from various cultural epochs. Collectively, they evidence the role of passion and connoisseurship in building a collection.
In 1985, approaching 30, William Kentridge was commissioned to produce a suite of wildlife drawings for energy company Mobil’s new Cape Town headquarters, designed by architect Louis Karol. The suite of 15 drawings he delivered, now part ofthe Engen Collection, reveal Kentridge’s remarkable skill as a draughtsman. By turns illustrative, humorous, melancholic, surreal and possibly even prophetic in the case of his composition featuring an overturned rhino, they also demonstrate his deft
