Strauss & co - 2017 Review

I am delighted to report that 2017 proved to be an extremely busy and highly successful year for Strauss & Co. The company managed to build and expand on the solid base established in the second half of 2016, a year that started traumatically and posed many challenges. We benefited from having a stable, dedicated and highly experienced team on hand throughout 2017 and put that energy to productive use by holding a record of nine auctions, a tally that included four live and five online auctions. If one looks at 2017 in financial terms, several records were achieved. Auction turnover smashed last year’s record of R215 million by R105 million or 49%, to achieve a very credible total of R329 million. We had out best sale yet, when the June sale in Johannesburg realised R90 million, a benchmark we are justifiably proud of. In the event, more records were broken when we achieved a value sell-through rate of 95,8%, selling Pierneef’smagnificent Farm Jonkershoek with Twin Peaks Beyond for R20 462 400. This is a world record for the artist and the second highest price ever achieved for a painting sold at auction in South Africa, a record that Strauss & Co already holds for the sale of Irma Stern’s Two Arabs at R21 166 000. During a year in which we established several new auction records for a wide variety of artists, a particular highlight was the sale of John Meyer’s Odysseus for R3 069 360 with fierce bidding demonstrating the buoyant demand for this popular artist’s work. We are particularly pleased that Strauss & Co has consistently presented works that have never before been sold at auction or had been considered lost, as was the case in respect of important works by Alexis Preller and Sydney Kumalo. In November 2016 we presented Preller’s life size rendition of the biblical first man Adam , a rare intaglio and oil on fibreglass together with five other works by Preller that had never been offered at auction before, all of which sold above mid-estimate. We were privileged to follow that up this November with the provocative and sensitive Fleurs du Mal , painted in 1944, which achieved R8 184 960. Handling such rare works in conjunction with the sale of Kumalo’s Madala VI , a single edition from this highly acclaimed series, Gerard Sekoto’s Women in the Country from the artist’s golden Eastwood period and two extremely rare landscapes from Moses Tladi, not only provided excitement in the saleroom but also brought joy and fulfilment to our team. In the past 18 months we have been entrusted by overseas clients with outstanding works by key South African artists such as Preller, Stern, Battiss, Kentridge and Kumalo. Without exception we have been successful in selling these either within or above our pre-sale estimates, demonstrating that Strauss & Co is ideally positioned, relative to its international and local peers, to achieve excellent results for high quality works. This is supported by the fact that the average sale price for the top 40 works sold during the year was approximately R4 million per item. During the year under review, we sold 3 797 items on behalf of our clients and achieved a value sell-through rate in excess of 80% on average, a statistic that sets us apart from our local and international competitors. The sale prices achieved on auction corresponded almost 100% to our mid pre-auction estimates, which illustrates the quality and experience of our specialists in providing accurate estimates. Both these criteria remain a key guiding force for us in terms of conducting our business in an ethical, transparent, efficient and sustainable manner. Our pioneering online-only auctions have proved to be a fast growing and increasingly significant component of our business and the November online auction set a new record turnover of R4,2 million. These have been very beneficial in introducing new clients to the market and Strauss & Co remains committed to keeping works on this platform accessible and affordable to first time buyers. Southern African art has never been better positioned to become a more meaningful force globally and at Strauss & Co we recognize and accept our responsibility in terms of the development and strengthening of our art ecosystem. Our efforts are focused on art education, supporting art institutions and creating a greater local and international awareness, understanding and admiration of Southern African artists, past and present. During 2017 we aimed at creating international awareness by supporting the Friends of the South African Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia financially and attending the Africa Art Forum in Venice. Strauss & Co also became a corporate founding member of the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and strongly believes that the museum Chairperson’s Report 4