Johannesburg: Strauss & Co’s auction held this week at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead confirms certain strengths in the art market and that South Africa is the place to buy South African art.

Strauss & Co’s Cape Town inaugural auction of Highly Important Paintings, Furniture, Silver and Ceramics including the Leslie Milner Collection held on 8 October 2009 at the prestigious Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, realised a remarkable R39 million, bringing the turnover for the auction house in its first year of operation to more than R100 million and thereby placing Strauss & Co. firmly at the helm of the South African art market. The Leslie Milner Collection of South African Paintings alone totalled R4.5 million. With an 89.63% sold rate, several new world records were also achieved for works by Wolf Kibel, Stanley Pinker, Johannes Meintjes, Fanie Eloff, Gerard de Leeuw, May Hillhouse and Jean Welz, amongst others.

Edith Dodo 1923 – 2009 Edith Dodo, née Azgour, was born in Cairo where her father was a perfumier. They relocated to Paris where Edith went to school and was introduced to a world of art, design and fashion that was to leave a lasting impression on her. When Edith was fifteen the family immigrated to South Africa and settled in Johannesburg where she completed her schooling before going on to the Johannesburg Art School.

The impact of the South African war, or more specifically, the second Anglo-Boer war (1899 – 1902) was deeply felt amongst South Africans when Van Wouw produced this bronze in 1907.

Racework – in the event of an earthquake, one of Jane Alexander’s most appealing and affecting sculptures, was made in response to Alexander’s visit to Tokyo, where she was invited to show the Bom Boys on the exhibition, Africa Africa at the Tobu Museum of Art in late 1998. Identical to each other, the Racework figures make reference to preconceived ideas about difference, exoticism, and stereotypes based on visual markers, and with that, assumptions, discrimination and prejudice based on appearance.

A magnificent Irma Stern painting entitled Still Life with Dahlias and Fruit is one of the many impressive works coming up for auction at Strauss & Co’s Johannesburg sale on 24 May 2010.

A significant number of works by Edoardo Villa, Cecil Skotnes, Sydney Kumalo, Giuseppe Cattaneo and Ezrom Legae have been gathered together for Strauss & Co’s 24 May auction in Johannesburg. According to Stephan Welz, South Africa’s most reputable fine art auctioneer, "visitors to the preview at The Country Club at Woodmead, will have a rare opportunity to see the works of these artists who as a group and as individuals, have had a marked influence on the development of South African art".

Maud Sumner, one of South Africa’s most underrated artists, makes a fine showing at the forthcoming Strauss & Co auction of Important British, Continental and South African Paintings and Sculpture which takes place on 24 May in Johannesburg. According to Stephan Welz, Managing Director of Strauss & Co, South Africa’s leading fine art auction house, "Maud Sumner is an underpriced South African artist whose work makes a sound investment".

Strauss & Co is delighted to host valuation days, lectures and exclusive jewellery appreciation courses in Johannesburg and Cape Town to be conducted by internationally acclaimed jewellery expert, Joanna Hardy.

Strauss & Co’s spring auctions, on 11th October at the Vineyard Hotel and on 1st November at the Country Club Johannesburg in Woodmead respectively, are set to showcase some of the most exciting examples of top South African art ever to come to auction. Amongst these, are a number of key works by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef that have been treausured in private collections and not been seen publically.