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A still life by celebrated artist Irma Stern sold this week for R13 368 000, setting a new record price for a South African painting at auction. The auction conducted by Strauss & Co featured several works which sold for well in excess of R1 million rand each. The sale totalled over R43 million bringing Strauss & Co’s total for the year thus far to over R120 million rand confirming the strength of the local art market and Strauss’s leading position as auctioneers of South African art.

Our quest for good service and excellence has remained a daily commitment, which requires hard work and dedication on the part of our team headed by Stephan Welz. The result has been that 2010 has exceeded all expectations in terms of turnover, records achieved and the quality of consignments which we have had the privilege of handling.

Lemon Pickers is one of the most exciting Irma Stern paintings to come to the market in recent years. Of exceptional quality, it is a very early work, painted in 1928, confirming Stern as a unique and pioneering artist amongst her peers.

While Irma Stern still holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a South African painting on home soil, achieved when her Gladioli sold for R13 368 000 at Strauss & Co’s October 2010 auction, two paintings are competing for the top honours at Strauss & Co’s March 2011 auction.

Strauss & Co, Cape Town: An Irma Stern of Two Arabs last night set a new record for a work of art in South Africa when it sold in Cape Town for R21 166 000. The sale which totalled over R50 million set several new South African art auction records.

Strauss & Co, the worldwide market leader for South African art: We celebrate the closure of the year with an annual total of R170 million, over 90% of the total achieved in 2010 – which was a boom year for the art market – and double the total achieved in 2009.

Probably the best-known South African painting in the world, Frans Oerder’s still-life Magnolias, is to be auctioned in Johannesburg on the 9th of March by South Africa’s dynamic new auction house – Strauss & Co.

The old adage that "a work of art sells best in its country of origin" was proved at the first auction of Important South African Paintings, Watercolours and Sculpture conducted by Strauss & Co in Johannesburg last night.

In Strauss & Co’s upcoming inaugural Cape Town auction which takes place on 8 October 2009, a powerful study of an athlete balancing on his hands by Fanie Eloff is featured.