Spirited bidding set the tone for Strauss & Co’s International Sale on 28 October 2025, when Irma Stern’s Malay (Black Headdress) went under the hammer. Five bidders on the phone and one in the room competed for the luminous 1946 portrait, depicting a Cape Muslim woman in vivid yellow tones. After a flurry of offers, it sold to a determined telephone bidder for R21.7 million — the highest price ever paid for a Stern portrait of a female sitter in Africa.
Returning to market after more than 50 years in private hands, the painting’s appearance could not have come at a more significant time. Stern’s work is currently the subject of a major retrospective at Berlin’s Brücke Museum, in the city where her career began in the 1910s. Her global profile has also been elevated by the inclusion of her 1942 Portrait of Emma Bakayishonga in the main exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale last year.
The sale drew interest from collectors across continents. Offers climbed rapidly — at times in R1-million jumps — before the gavel fell. The final price marks the second-highest achieved for a Stern painting at Strauss & Co, surpassed only by Children Reading the Koran (1939), which fetched R22.3 million in 2023.
“It was a true privilege to handle this exceptional portrait,” said Bina Genovese, 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.”
The two-part sale brought together important works spanning five centuries, from blue-chip modernists to contemporary icons. The 69-lot evening auction achieved a total turnover of R27.8 million, with 70 per cent of lots sold.
Among the international highlights were Picasso’s Couple et Flûtistes au Bord d’un Lac, a lyrical linocut from his late French period, which achieved R1 million; Marc Chagall’s La Baie des Anges, which sold for R485 205; and Otto Modersohn’s poetic landscape, which realised R554 520.
Founded in 2009, Strauss & Co remains Africa’s leading art auction house, recognised for its expertise in modern and contemporary art, collectable design, fine wine, and jewellery. The company is the leading reseller of works by South African artists J.H. Pierneef, William Kentridge, and Irma Stern.
