All smiles as Tutu sculpture auctioned off for R852 000

A LIFE-SIZE‚ hyper-realistic sculpture of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu by Cape Town-based artist Ed Young was sold for more than R850 000 on auction at Strauss & Co on Monday night.

The auction achieved a total of R50million with a value sell-through rate of more than 84%‚ which Strauss & Co said was “once again the highest in the current market,” the auctioneers said yesterday.

“The auction proved that great art‚ well presented‚ will always achieve great results‚” said Strauss & Co.

Young’s sculpture depicts the Archbishop swooping into a room on a set of chandeliers‚ purple tunic blowing in the wind. It sold for R852 600. Pre-sale estimates were R450 000-R550 000.

The sculpture was commissioned in 2010 by the Institute for Democracy in SA (Idasa).

The Arch was sold to a private buyer after the closure of Idasa two years ago. Strauss & Co senior art specialist Ruarc Peffers, said the company was excited to see that contemporary art did so well on the auction. For a long time the secondary art market had been dominated by “five or six” 20th century artists‚ but tastes were changing and Strauss & Co had tried to keep pace with that.

“It is encouraging to see how well purely contemporary art has done‚” he said.

German artist Berlinde de Bruyckere’s Schmerzensmann III fetched R3 410 400.

The sculpture features a mangled-looking figure attached to the top of a pole‚ possibly a contemporary take on the crucifixion.

South African artist Robert Hodgins’s J’accuse was sold for R2 500 960.

Other pieces of contemporary art by South Africans on the auction‚ included the work of Brett Murray‚ Penny Siopis‚ Cameron Platter‚ Michael MacGarry and Zander Blom. — BDLive