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The Mount Nelson, Cape Town: Last night at a charity auction conducted by Stephan Welz, Managing Director of Strauss & Co on behalf of WWF, the opportunity of naming a new found species of iris raised R550 000.

The paintings of Pieter Wenning, a grossly underrated artist in the opinion of Stephan Welz, are exciting much interest amongst art collectors with At Claremont, CP having sold for R1 782 400 at Strauss & Co’s March 2011 sale in Cape Town, establishing a new record for the artist.

Strauss & Co’s upcoming auction at the Johannesburg Country Club, Woodmead, on 16 May has many highlights and some surprises. Reflecting on recent trends, Stephan Welz, Strauss & Co’s esteemed auctioneer, anticipates an impending and necessary shift of emphasis in the South African art market.

The publicity we have put out for this remarkable painting by Irma Stern has elicited response enabling us to identify the sitter – a distinguished, if not one of the greatest South African musicians ever.

JOHANNESBURG: Strauss & Co’s auction held on Monday 16 May reinforced the strength of the current art market when a capacity audience bid enthusiastically on key art pieces realising a total of R37 902 555.

An exhibition and auction of artworks by prominent alumni from the Michaelis School of Fine Art – in aid of bursaries and scholarships at the school - From the 12 to 20 July 2011 the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, will host a fundraising exhibition and auction of work of its prestigious alumni and staff, in aid of bursaries and scholarships at the school, Hiddingh Campus, 37 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town.

Cape Town: This week the Michaelis School of Fine Art hosted its much anticipated Alumni and Staff Auction in aid of bursaries and scholarships at the school. Stephan Welz, Managing Director of Strauss & Co. and his team auctioned ninety lots of work by prestigious and emerging artists, raising a substantial sum which the school will use to establish a fund to support talented and needy students with their studies.

Irma Stern’s Two Arabs (R20 000 000 – 25 000 000) is certainly the most important painting to be offered at auction in South Africa over the past decade and will no doubt create a great deal of excitement amongst collectors at Strauss & Co’s upcoming auction to be held at the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, on 26 September 2011.

The star of the show in Strauss & Co’s September 2011 auction in Cape Town is Two Arabs by Irma Stern. This painting is one of the highlights from a group of works painted by Irma Stern in Zanzibar in 1939 where she spent four months. It ranks equally with two major Sterns recently sold at auction, Arab Priest, which achieved R33 411 915 and Bahora Girl, which sold for R26 062 159.

Lucas Sithole’s Charging Afrikander set the auction room alight at Strauss & Co’s May sale when fierce bidding drove the price way above the estimates of R300 000 – 500 000 to achieve a record of R946 900.