Strauss & co - Review 2021

Chairperson’s Report The South African art market has weathered a difficult few years. Notwithstanding the headwinds, and they were intense in 2021, collectors have continued to pursue their passion with focus and commitment. The robust appetite for quality art, design and wine enabled Strauss & Co to achieve a record turnover of R356.3 million in the 2021 calendar year. This is immensely gratifying, and I read it as a clear indication of the continued vibrancy of the market for art, design and wine in this country, notwithstanding the social and economic stresses. In 2021 we successfully handled over 8 500 lots. This is an extraordinary volume for a small business with less than 50 permanent staff. We are very proud of this outcome, more so because this brisk trade provided our valued clients with liquidity at a time when market conditions required it. We responded by expanding our portfolio of auctions in order to bring more work to the market and give our clients the opportunity to realise the value of their collectables. This presented significant challenges in balancing the need for liquidity with ensuring a sustainable art market. The record number of white-glove auctions and sessions in 2021 – five – testifies to our success in doing so. The transformational journey we embarked in 2020 with the introduction of virtual live sales was instrumental to our success in 2021. Our investments in technology and people enabled us to offer a more comprehensive and responsive programme of sales to our clients. Innovation has become central to our ethos as a company. At Strauss & Co, we are constantly reviewing our product offerings and investing in systems and processes to enable us to give our clients a rewarding transactional experience. Investing in capacity is not always a theme one dwells on in an annual report, but I feel it is important to mention. We are not taking our successes for granted and acknowledge that our services were sometimes constrained in 2021. Capacity was a real challenge because of increased volumes and the constraints in supply chains worldwide. We are committing significant capital, time and effort to meet that challenge, and have appointed key staff to address our information technology, specialist research and international client liaison abilities. We have invested in transport and logistics. We are committed and working very hard to become an even better and more dynamic company. Every year delivers new insights and surprises and the irrefutable strength of blue-chip artists like JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller and Irma Stern at market was re-emphasised in 2021. Preller accounted for four of the ten highest-value lots sold by Strauss & Co in the year, and Pierneef’s iconic 1952 landscape 4