The South African public has been left aghast at the value of work stolen from the Pretoria Art Museum only to be followed the next day by record prices paid for paintings by Alexis Preller and Walter Battiss amongst others which ran into millions of rands at a Strauss & Co’s auction in Johannesburg.
The auction realised in excess of R33 000 000 and many in the audience were astounded when ten of the paintings offered realised more than three times their presale estimate. One in particular “Girl with an Oriole” by Alexis Preller with a presale estimate of R600 000 sold for just over R4 000 000, more than six times its presale estimate.
A spokesperson for Strauss & Company quipped that “they were relieved that collectors believed in the value of South African Art as seen in recent front page news!”.
