BAAPRIL09

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SOUTH AFRICAN

BUSINESS ART April 2009 | Supplement to The South African Art Times | To order and subscribe call 021 424 7733 | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za | Part of the Global Art Information Group

Bidders do battle at Strauss & Co inaugural auction at The Johannesburg Country Club. Its March 9 maiden sale at the Jo’burg Country Club was about 87% sold, and grossed R37m, against the pre-sale estimate of between R30m-R40m.

Slain Gold Magnate’s art sale may fetch SA record Nicky Smith March 25 (Bloomberg) -- The sale of the South African art collection of murdered gold mining magnate Brett Kebble may fetch the most ever paid for a collection of local works. The collection of 20th-century pieces may raise as much as 100 million rand ($11 million) when it goes under the hammer on May 7, Graham Britz, director of sales of Graham’s Fine Art Gallery in Johannesburg, said in an interview today. The collection includes artists such as Irma Stern, J.H. Pierneef and Walter Battiss. “People will still pay top dollar for top quality,” said Britz. “There is a lot at stake. We’re aiming for a record price paid for a South African painting. It will also be a record for a collective body of works sold on South African soil in a single session.” Kebble, died in his car in Johannesburg in September 2005 at the age of 41 after being shot seven times in what the main suspect for his murder has said was an “assisted suicide.” Since his death, JCI Ltd. and RandGold & Exploration Co. Ltd. have lodged a claim seeking 2 billion rand from his estate,

saying he illegally sold assets during his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of both companies. During his 11-year gold mining career Kebble led companies that created two of South Africa’s top four gold producers, and began the development of South Deep, the world’s largest gold deposit. He also helped lead the 1997 acquisition of a 35 percent stake in JCI from Anglo American Plc for $650 million, at the time the biggest attempt after apartheid to boost black ownership of South Africa’s economy.

South African art at an auction held March 8 in Johannesburg, including 7.15 million rand for Stern’s still life portrait “Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot,” according to its Web site. “Brett knew his art and over the years he has collected quite valuable art,” Jack Rosewitz, deputy chairman of Johannesburg-based Stephan Welz & Co. in Association with Sotheby’s, said in an interview. “He had an enormous collection and South African art is quite hot on the local market.”

Top Prices

Missing Items

The collection of 133 items includes Stern’s “Woman Sewing Karos” and “Mother and Child,” Alexis Preller’s “Christ Head” and Maria Magdalena Laubser’s “Portrait of an Old Woman with Head Scarf: Landscape in Background.” It also has pieces from Vladimir Tretchikoff, William Kentridge, J.E.A. Volschenk and Pieter Venning.

London-based Bonhams last month achieved record prices for 12 South African artists, including Laubser’s “Indian Girl With Poinsettias,” which sold for 276,000 pounds ($402,546), beating pre-sale estimates of 100,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds, while a piece by Preller sold for more than double the highest predicted amount, according its Web Site.

The sale, for which a catalog will become available April 16, comes as the auction value increased for South African art this year.

Kebble’s Stern painting of “Woman Sewing Karos,” a 1929 oil on canvas has been “conservatively valued” at between 5 million rand and 7 million rand, Britz said. The most ever paid for a Stern work was 7.39 million rand for her 1946 piece “Congolese Woman”

Strauss & Co. raised a record 38 million rand for

at a December 2007 Christie’s International Plc auction, which included the “hammer price” and extra charges, Britz said. Preller’s “Christ Head” has been valued between 2 million rand and 3 million rand, Britz said. A team of forensic investigators is still trying to find as many as 15 items missing from the collection, Hans Klopper, the managing director of Independent Corporate Recovery Advisors, said in a phone interview from Stellenbosch, South Africa. Klopper is winding down Kebble’s estate, which includes 10 million rand of Kebble’s personal debts, such as mortgages and car finance. Galleries will be put on alert for the missing items and rewards may be offered if pieces are returned, he said. Kebble in 2003 started the Brett Kebble Art Awards, which his family stopped after his death. The administrators are also “chasing approximately 35 million rand to 40 million rand” missing from the estate, Klopper said. “These were things such as donations and payments made at a time when his estate was hopelessly insolvent.” http://www.bloomberg.com

Art Bank Joburg faces challenges Michael Coulson Halfway through the initial five-year period in which it was hoping to break even, the Jo’burg Metro’s struggling pioneer art bank is to adopt a new business plan and move to a new location. The Canadian art bank on which Art Bank Joburg is modeled took nine years to break even, and CEO Antoinette Murdoch admitted recently that this sort of time horizon is probably more realistic. The Joburg Metro Council invested R5m in Art Bank Joburg, of which R3.1m has been spent on art works. According to Joburg cultural supremo Steven Sack, a council report, which has not yet been publicly released, estimates that another R4.5m is needed to make the body self-sufficient. So far, the art bank has acquired 30 clients, of which 60% are public-sector (mostly municipal) and the balance private-sector. It owns 1 090 art works by 290 individual

artists with a total value of R3.1m. The average value of R2 830 reflects the bank’s remit to encourage developing artists, and Sack points out that the maximum price the bank may pay for a work is R15 000. They are hired out at 20% of market value, and revalued every year, so this income should rise gradually, but clearly not at a rate which will make the venture economic in the foreseeable future. Sack in fact would like to spend another R7m on art, taking the stock to R10m, which should make the art bank profitable but, he admits, will take several years. He concedes that current tight economic conditions are unpropitious for raising funds from the corporate sector, but has several creative ideas for getting around this. For example, a client may be prepared to buy art, donate it to the bank and display it in its own premises, but only start to pay “rent” some years later. He reminded me that the arts White Paper recommended that the Department of Arts & Culture

set up a national art bank. It hasn’t done so (which will come as no surprise to cultural workers), which could make it possible for Art Bank Joburg to take over this role. It’s also possible that the Metro Council could be persuaded to supplement its original investment. And, finally, when it can produce three years’ audited accounts – which shouldn’t be that far away -- the art bank could apply for national lottery money. But the art bank is not sitting idly waiting for manna from heaven. As well as developing its existing activities, it’s co-ordinating the commissioning of a large tribute to Walter and Albertina Sisulu that the Metro Council plans to erect in Loveday St in Braamfontein. This will be a major piece of public sculpture, for which there’s a budget for labour and materials of up to R600 000 – though not all of this has yet been raised. The target date for completion is June this year, though this could be optimistic as it will require a tight time scale and such projects trend to lag behind schedule.

The bank, which announced last year that it was to move from Newtown to the old premises of the Sandton Civic Gallery, is now to relocate to Spark, the old electricity sub-station in Norwood which has seen sporadic success as an art gallery and craft centre but has never really fulfilled the potential held out by its attractive space. So it’s clear that the institution faces major challenges. If the new business plan doesn’t bring it closer to break-even fairly soon, one must wonder for how long the Metro Council – which doesn’t attach a high priority to the visual arts, judging by how the Joburg Art Gallery is starved of resources – will be prepared to carry it. And there’s one last wild card in the pack. Murdoch is widely tipped as a front-runner to succeed Clive Kellner as curator of JAG. Should this happen, for all Sack’s commitment to the art bank, another unwelcome element of uncertainty would enter the equation.

LATEST SOUTH AFRICA ART AUCTION MARKET UPDATE Michael Coulson After a spate of poor to mediocre results both in SA and London, the latest two SA art auctions held by long-established Stephan Welz/Sotheby’s (Swelco) and newcomer Strauss & Co and brought better results, in terms of the percentage of lots sold and prices compared to pre-sale estimates. Is this sustainable, or just a temporary rally in a bear market – a dead cat bounce, in stock market parlance? Both firms are guardedly optimistic. Strauss’s Stephan Welz says “My gut tells me that it can last,” while Swelco’s fine art expert in Cape Town, Phillippa Duncan, is even more positive. “Certainly it’s sustainable,” she says. “People want to protect their art collections, which they see as a major asset. If they can’t get the price they want, they’ll simply hold on for a less rainy day.” But there are reservations. Welz warns that “There’ll be serious problems at the lower end of the market, which will have to reorientate itself. Some artists’ work has been bought for social and political reasons more than artistic merit. “What you could call ‘calendar’ art may also face tough times. The market for [Johan] Oldert has virtually disappeared, while prices for, say, Gabriel de Jongh have barely moved in the past five years.” Duncan stresses that quality will be vital. Both clearly feel that the fact that Bonham’s was left with 20 of the 27 Irma Sterns in its pre-Christmas sale had as much to do with their quality as with any weakness in demand for the artist, though Welz (basking in the near-record for Magnolias in his sale) does think that she may have peaked for now – as may Pierneef, and even Maggie Laubser. Peak prices may themselves give people pause, he says. “They may think, why I should I spend R4m or whatever on a Stern when I can buy a very pleasant Terrence McCaw for R60 000-R80 000? Or, higher up the scale, a Hugo Naude?” But if the market as a whole is sustainable, which second-liners or outsiders may narrow the gap with Stern and Pierneef in the months ahead? Duncan is reluctant to be drawn. “It’s dangerous to be a tipster. People must start buying what they like again. And despite the collapse of the market for contemporary art internationally, it’s becoming stronger locally.

“However, contemporary artists must temper their often unrealistic expectations. It’s taken [William] Kentridge 20 years to reach his current status, and he has every right to command the prices he does. But it’s problematical when newcomers think they can expect the same.” Welz is more forthcoming – or foolhardy. “There’s a lot of room for Hugo Naude still. The market loves his cheerful floral landscapes. Alexis Preller could come in for a run, helped by the imminent publication of an authoritative book on him (sponsored by Gordon Schachat). And there’s always interest in Maud Sumner. Two with a lot of steam left in them are Freida Lock and Adolph Jentsch, though they’re held back by a lack of supply.” Supply is crucial. “I thought that after getting R1.4m for a Dorothy Kay [who many think is unduly neglected] we’d be inundated by her work, but we haven’t been offered a thing! The good people of Port Elizabeth [where she lived and worked] either don’t follow the market or are inseparably attached to their Kays.” I throw another PE name, a favourite of mine, at him: Fred Page. “He’s an amazing artist, but not everyone’s idea of a pleasing picture. A book’s being put together on him, too, though I hear they may be looking for sponsorship.” Recent interest in Tretchikoff, driven by one “total aberration of a price”, he dismisses as speculative rather than from genuine collectors – though he insists that, despite neither of Strauss’s Tretchis being accorded a price in the post-sale list, he did sell one of them. Remarkably, neither Welz nor Duncan see the world economic crisis as a major threat. Duncan reckons that the rich will still be buying quality paintings; Welz adds that his firm’s clients – though he’s not specific, this means traditional middle- and upper-income whites and the emerging black elite – haven’t been hit by recession – yet. And he believes that, if Zimbabwe is to be reconstructed, the knock-on benefits for SA will be substantial. He’s also encouraged by the breadth of buying at the Strauss sale. “There weren’t just one or two buyers, but a healthy spread.” Next big test, both agree, will be the Brett Kebble sale in May – but again with reservations. As Duncan puts it, she fears that Kebble often bought by name rather than quality. Well, we’ll soon find out.


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