Strauss & co - Review 2019

11 Introduction: A steadfast tenth anniversary South Africa faced sustained turbulence on many fronts in 2019 which made for nervous trading but, despite it all, Strauss & Co ended the year on a very positive note. In its tenth year of trading, Strauss & Co sold 4 190 lots through 16 sales platforms, earning a combined total of R319.4 million. The lot sell-through rate was above industry norms at 65.18%, with a value rate of 81.30%. “I am really encouraged by the company’s strong 2019 results,” says Strauss & Co’s chairman Frank Kilbourn. “This is our second- highest ever annual turnover and nearly matches the R329 million we achieved in 2017. The headline turnover marks an improvement over our creditable 2018 result of R255 million. I attribute the excellent results to the depth and resilience of the South African art market, which is capable of weathering challenges. Another important contributing factor to our solid performance was the quality of the high-value lots offered by Strauss & Co throughout the year.” Often consigned by single-owner collections, these high-value lots included a bounty of important paintings by Irma Stern, notably at Strauss & Co’s March sale in Cape Town. Not since the R21-million sale of Stern’s painting Two Arabs in 2011 by Strauss & Co had there been such excitement around a single auction in South Africa. Strauss & Co sold 49 Stern lots in 2019, achieving combined sales of R95.31 million. The top-performing Stern lot, Arab , was also Strauss & Co’s best-selling lot of 2019. Previously unrecorded, this 1945 portrait of an Omani nobleman from the court of the Sultanate of Zanzibar sold for R20.5 million. “Every market has its pillars, and Stern is the South African art market’s dominant structural element,” says Kilbourn. “She has been a blue-chip asset in the portfolios of serious collectors for over half a century. Her presence in auctions throughout 2019 has ensured continuity and stability in our activities.” Stern made up six of the ten top-selling lots in 2019. The top ten lots included a work apiece by William Kentridge, Alexis Preller, Gerard Sekoto and Anton van Wouw, and together with the six Stern lots grossed a combined R112.66 million. The next ten lots only added R22 million to the overall turnover, underscoring the importance of high-quality lots to Strauss & Co’s strong performance in 2019. Auction sales globally are frequently top heavy, with works by blue-chip artists commanding superlative prices. But the auction trade is about more than serving a narrow stratum of collectors. In the past few years Strauss & Co has consistently expanded its offering with a view to diversifying its revenue streams and growing collectors. New collectors are the lifeblood of a sustainable auction house. Capital is currently highly mobile and expressions of luxury and connoisseurship are also shifting. In 2019 the company introduced collectable wines to its bouquet of carefully vetted goods for resale. The two standalone wine sales, held in Cape Town and Johannesburg, generated a commendable R4 million in sales. When combined with the turnover generated by Strauss & Co’s other boutique sales – contemporary art and decorative arts – the company grossed just shy of R45 million from these specialist sales. Its six online sales, a platform suited to high- volume, low-yield lots and emerging collectors, brought in an additional R20.3 million. This report surveys key trends in the trading year January to December 2019. It discusses works sold at Strauss & Co’s four premier live sales, two specialist decorative arts sales, emergent contemporary art sale and newly instituted wine sales. The clearest take out from this report is the resilience of the South African market for collectables, and Strauss & Co’s pre-eminent role in this market. Irma Stern Arab Sold R20 484 000 The Late Sol Munitz Collection