South African Art @ Christie's London Andries Loots  Week of 23 April 2000

An impressive collection of 20th century South African Art was auctioned at Christie's London on the 18th of April 2000 at their rooms at 8 Kingstreet, St.James, London.

Results were  disappointing, with only about 25 people at the sale. Few people went to the preview held in the book room downstairs on the lower level. International works were displayed in the main rooms and few people even bothered to look for the South African works. Some of the works were badly cracked or damaged and the estimates for works by Muafangejo were too high as many of them were not even signed, none were sold.

Given the economic volatility on the world stock markets preceding the sale, many South African buyers were nervous to spend their Rands. Most of the lots were listed with special conditions resulting in increased buyers commission and VAT. Few people knew about this sale.

It is clear that the rest of the world is not ready for South African art yet and the few works that were sold, were mostly bought by South African buyers by telephone and the works had to be shipped back to were they originally came from.
Overall a very disappointing auction ...

A few results :
Hammer prices quoted do not include commission.