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What Happened at Sotheby's?
Andries Loots
 Week of 14 May 2000

STEPHAN WELZ & CO.

In Association With

SOTHEBY'S

On Monday 8 May 2000 I attended the Sotheby's sale in Johannesburg. The Auction room was packed like usual.  Admission to the Third Session was by ticket only. With 849 Lots, it was indeed one of the biggest auctions to date. It is a pity that when one regards the participating crowd it still looks like the over sixties club with very few black buyers. It was however encouraging to see more art by black artists included in the sale although  the quality of some of these works was inferior and should rather have been left out of the sale.   

A few highlights : 
Although there were a few highlights and new record prices for certain artist's work, the overall feeling was one of uncertainty. Some of the most prominent artists struggled to get  good prices consistently.  Here are some of the hammer prices ( commission  to be added ):

Lot 701 J.H. Pierneef 
 R100 000
(estimate R60 000-90 000)

Lot 727 Hugo Naude
 R95 000
(estimate R40 000-50 000)

Lot 733 Maggie Laubser R280 000
(estimate R100 000-150 000)

Lot 739 Irma Stern
 1,6 Million
(estimate
 R500 000-800 000)

Lot 759 Gerhard Sekoto 
R150 000
(estimate R35 000-50 000)

 Lot 764 Jean Welz
 R60 000
(estimate
 R70 000-100 000)		 Lot 767 Alexis Preller
 R100 000
(estimate R60 000-80 000)

Lot 780 De Sander Hendrikz
 R130 000
(estimate
 R50 000-80 000)

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Lot 790 Francois Krige  R160 000
(estimate R70 000-90 000)

Lot 813 George Pemba R80 000
(estimate R30 000-40 000)

Lot 769 Frieda Lock
 R90 000
(estimate
 R20 000-30 000)