A stellar line-up of international artists, among them icons of the 20th century like Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Marc Chagall, David Hockney and Pablo Picasso, attracted bidders from 20 countries to Strauss & Co’s annual International Sale on Tuesday.
The two-part sale earned a combined revenue of R24.9 million with 69 of the 97 lots in the Evening Sale selling (71% lot sell-through rate).
Marc Chagall’s mixed-media drawing La Fenêtre à Paris (Window in Paris), 1974, earned the top price when it sold to a telephone bidder for R8 million.
A determined telephone bidder also secured Pablo Picasso’s Tête (Head), a recto-verso drawing from 1967, for R7.3 million, one of five works by the Spanish master sold for above estimate.
Scottish painter Jack Vettriano’s The Proposal netted R1.6 million.
In a sale chock-a-block with big names, it was the little-known Czech artist Zdeněk Burian – a celebrated painter, book illustrator and paleoartist renowned for his depictions of prehistoric life – who brought the greatest buzz.
Burian’s oil painting of a feathered dinosaur, Archaeopteryx, attracted four telephone and multiple online bidders and eventually sold for R462 100. All eight works by Burian offered – three oils and five works on paper – sold for well above their estimates.
Alongside Chagall and Picasso, solid prices were achieved for British painters like Merlyn Evans, Ken Howard, Sidney Nolan and John Piper.
Harrington Mann’s undated Woman in an Interior sold well above estimate, achieving R323 470 after 38 enthusiastic bids.
Collector interest in Picasso endures.
His aquatint etching Le Peintre et son Modèle (The Artist and His Model), 1963, one of five works by the Spanish colossus offered, sold for R293 125 to a telephone bidder.
The International Sale included a star-studded list of artists acquired by legendary Johannesburg art dealer Linda Givon (1936-2020), including editions by John Baldessari, Louise Bourgeois and Henry Moore.
Original works on paper by Alan Davie, Mimmo Paladino and David Shrigley, also from the Givon Collection, achieved or exceeded their estimates.
Works on paper were a popular draw throughout the two sessions, with solid results achieved for works by Pierre Bonnard and Georges Braque.
An artist’s proof of Francis Bacon’s intaglio and aquatint triptych Metropolitan sold for R693 150.
Five ink and gouache drawings by Zdeněk Burian in the Day Sale attracted multiple bids, with the two top-selling works, Ape Men and Ape in Quicksand and Roaming Bear, attracting more than 50 bids apiece and selling for R152 425 each.
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