I read in the Sunday Times today that old South African paintings are just cruising along in a recent auction by Bonham's. After that Irma Stern sold for R7 million a couple of months ago, this week The Tomato Picker sold for a cool 2.8, Pierneef sold just past the 1mil mark and Alexis Preller for half of that. All well over their reserve prices. Even the ugly surrealist stuff. I know it’s a bull market at the moment in general, but one can’t help wandering if it’s worth it to own these objects.

What was surprising is that most of the South Africans there were non-buyers, and that these purchases were made by European collectors. I don’t understand market forces too well, and I know that these works are in a collectible European modernist style, but I hope the interest extends and grows to include a more contemporary South African art. Not that we need those neo-colonialist, but I wouldn’t mind if I were drinking Dom Perignon while I wrote this.

Labels: art market, south african art, south african artist