Strauss & co - 2015 Mid-year Review

Juggling Values Numbers like those recorded by Strauss & Co were, it should be noted, barely thinkable even ten years ago. In 1999, a then new record was registered for South African art at auction when an Irma Stern went under the hammer for R1.1 million; at more or less the same time a sculptural assemblage by the living South African artist Willie Bester raised eyebrows when it realised R110 000. Not two decades later, the ball game is entirely different. In May this year, an installation comprising five large bronze figures by the sculptor Deborah Bell was on offer at a gallery exhibition at R4 million. Reportedly it has sold in an edition of six. Less dramatically, though hardly less significantly, on 1 June, a group of related smaller figures by Bell, no doubt responding to the exhibition’s reception, realised double and more than double their estimates at Strauss & Co’s Johannesburg auction. Deborah Bell Sentinel I Sold R545 664, 1 June 2015 Sentinel III Sold R886 704, 1 June 2015 Sentinel VII Sold R852 600, 1 June 2015 Sentinel IX Sold R795 760, 1 June 2015 6