A rare 1946 portrait by South African artist Irma Stern has made headlines after selling for over R21.7 million at Strauss & Co’s latest International Sale, setting a new African record for a Stern portrait of a female sitter.
Screenshot from Strauss & Co Auctioneers (strauss_and_co)on Instagram
According to Strauss & Co, the painting’s success comes ‘at a time of extraordinary international visibility’ for Stern. The artist is currently the subject of a career-spanning retrospective at the Brücke Museum in Berlin, where she first began her artistic journey in the 1910s.
Last year, Stern’s 1942 portrait of Emma Bakayishonga, sister to Rwanda’s King Mutara III Rudahigwa, featured prominently in the main exhibition at the 60th Venice Biennale, further cementing her place in the canon of modern African art.
The sale of Malay (Black Headdress) was described by the auction house as a thrilling event marked by competitive bidding, with offers increasing by R1 million increments before the gavel came down.
The final price marks the second-highest result ever achieved for a Stern at Strauss & Co, surpassed only by the R22.3 million realised for her 1939 composition Children Reading the Koran in 2023.
‘It was a true privilege to handle this exceptional portrait,’ said Bina Genovese, who is the Managing Executive and Senior Auctioneer at Strauss & Co.
‘The outstanding result reflects the culmination of our dedicated efforts to present this work to the market and to major Stern collectors worldwide. The remarkable price achieved affirms the work’s exceptional quality and significance,’ she added.
The Malay (Black Headdress) portrait formed part of Strauss & Co’s prestigious two-part International Sale, which featured collectable artworks spanning five centuries.
The 69-lot Evening Sale generated R27.8 million (US$1.6 million) in turnover, with 70% of lots sold.
Highlights included works by international masters such as Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Otto Modersohn, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.
Among these, Picasso’s Couple et Flûtistes au Bord d’un Lac (Couple and Flautists by the Lake), which is a lively linocut from his late series created in the south of France, achieved R1 million (US$60 601).
Chagall’s La Baie des Anges (The Bay of Angels), created in Paris between 1961 and 1962, sold for R485 205 (US$28 280), while Modersohn’s symbolic landscape fetched R554 520 (US$32 321).
Watch below on the record-breaking sale of Irma Stern’s ‘Malay (Black Headdress)’.
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