comments Kilbourn. “Strauss & Co is a very strong brand in the forty-plus age group but this is not necessarily the case with people 20 years younger than me.” Of course, the firm’s extraordinary financial returns over the last two years have been securely based on the traditional market. “Not many people under the age of 35 can afford to pay R2million for a Battiss, R3 million for a Pierneef or R7million for a Stern, whereas buyers of historic and modern art are at that stage in life where they may have created excess capital that allows them to make those sorts of decisions. Last year Strauss had its best year ever. What made 2017 so exceptional was the works that Strauss managed to secure. “It started 18 months ago,” says Kilbourn, “when numerous amazing Prellers started coming out of the woodwork – Prellers from all over the world, never handled in the secondary market before, that not even people like Prof Karel Nel and Esmé Berman, noted art historians and Preller experts, had ever seen. We put together a comprehensive program, with lectures, walkabouts and exhibitions showing these
works and educating people about the various stages of Preller’s career. As a result more people started to realise that there is more to Preller than his Mapogga paintings, there’s a rich oeuvre worth investing in.” The Strauss & Co campaign attracted more and better Prellers which sold extremely well thereby strengthening the Preller market. “Then we got the Jonkershoek Pierneef,” marvels Kilbourn, “which was on the market for the first time since it was purchased in 1929, an unbelievable work in perfect condition. It sold for R20.5 million achieving a world record for the artist. When there is a lot of activity on the telephones and plenty of bidders in the room, people get the sense there’s a deep market here, there’s a lot of interest, it’s not just restricted to one or two wealthy people. I think that our record-breaking year is attributable to the unique combination of the high number of good quality works plus the general optimism and growth in the art market in South Africa.
