Strauss & Co collaboration with robust outcomes for uncommon and vital artwork from throughout East Africa – African Enterprise Innovation

• Tanzanian modernists Sam Ntiro and Ok.F. Msangi prime gross sales desk
• Msangi’s Baobab Underneath the Pink Moon, from 1968, sells for KES 3 522 000 / US$ 27 271

• Public sale earns  KES 29 666 980 / US$ 229 727 from 52 tons offered, with 80% sell-through charge
• Greater than 70% of tons offered obtain or exceed excessive estimate

NAIROBI – A robust turnout of potential consumers to the inaugural version of Artwork Public sale East Africa | Strauss & Co, a profitable new collaboration between Nairobi-based Danda Jaroljmek’s Circle Artwork Company and South African public sale home Strauss & Co, produced strong bidding for uncommon and vital artwork from East Africa and past. There was particularly robust curiosity in rare-to-market work by acclaimed Tanzanian modernists Sam Ntiro and Ok.F. Msangi, culminating in new public sale benchmarks for these and different artists from the East Africa area. 

Held at Circle Artwork Gallery in Nairobi, the live-virtual public sale opened with Kenyan painter Boniface Maina’s 2012 composition Diary of the Hid, which offered after heavy bidding for KES 645 700 / US$ 5 000. The vigorous curiosity set the tone for public sale, which noticed two work by Ok.F. Msangi, painted at reverse ends of the Sixties, obtain the best particular person costs. Msangi’s Baobab Underneath the Pink Moon, a fervid post-impressionist panorama from 1968, was the night’s prime earner, promoting for KES 3 522 000 / US$ 27 271 – greater than double the pre-sale estimate. 

“Encouragingly, over 70% of the offered tons offered had been inside or above the excessive estimate, demonstrating the aggressive nature of the bidding,” says Dr Alastair Meredith, Director and Artwork Division Head, Strauss & Co, who shared duties on the rostrum with Susie Goodman, Director, Strauss & Co. “Total, the live-virtual public sale earned KES 29 666 980 / US$ 229 727 from 52 tons offered, with a sell-through charge simply shy of 80% and bidders spanning 19 nations globally. Over 45% of the bidders had been new consumers to Artwork Public sale East Africa | Strauss & Co, which is thrilling for the longevity of this sale. The bidders comprised each personal and institutional collectors, which displays positively on the power of the area.” 

“There was a very nice ambiance within the room, with about 120 potential consumers in attendance and a big presence of on-line viewers, which prompt new curiosity and attain for us,” says Danda Jaroljmek, Director, Circle Artwork Company, who established Artwork Public sale East Africa in 2013 as a platform to domesticate a secondary marketplace for trendy and modern East African artists working. “Gross sales had been up on earlier years, with particularly large outcomes for uncommon works by Ok.F. Msangi and Sam Ntiro. There have been additionally some surprises, like Sudanese artist Miska Mohammed’s The Motion of Daisies from 2021, which offered for KES 1 150 520 / US$ 8 908. The bidders had been mainly collectors aware of East African artwork, however there was undoubtedly a way of latest eyes on the very good work on supply from this area of the African continent.”

“The inaugural version of Artwork Public sale East Africa | Strauss & Co is a realisation of Strauss & Co’s strategic dedication to be an public sale home from the African continent presenting work to collectors on the continent and past,” says Susie Goodman, who travelled to Kenya with a group of Strauss & Co gross sales and logistics specialists. “Our expertise in internet hosting on-line gross sales has positioned us nicely to be able to current auctions comparable to this in a brand new location. We’re very a lot dedicated to having gross sales on this area and different areas throughout the African continent. For me personally, the collaboration with Danda Jaroljmek and her group at Circle Artwork Company emphasised that our artwork ecosystem is stronger after we work collectively.”

Within the lead as much as the sale, Strauss & Co, working with Circle Artwork Company, hosted a collection of engagements with collectors and specialists. They included a panel dialogue with native artwork specialists, talks and conferences with personal collectors, in addition to a public lecture by Dr Alastair Meredith on the Muthaiga Nation Membership and a younger collectors occasion and boutique resort Social Home.

“One in all our duties as an African public sale home is to spotlight the present hyperlinks between artists from our space of experience, Southern Africa, and different components of the continent,” says Dr Alastair Meredith. “South Africa has particularly robust historic hyperlinks to the East African area via modernist artists like Walter Battiss, Terence McCaw, Frans Oerder, Alexis Preller, JH Pierneef and Irma Stern, who all travelled up the east coast of Africa and had been enormously impressed by the panorama of the area. On the similar time, it was crucial for Strauss & Co to companion with Circle Artwork Company to current this data to audiences in Nairobi. The outreach programme enabled us to realize appreciable insights about artists from Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia and past, classes that may assist bolster our future gross sales. It was a privilege to be taught from Danda Jaroljmek and her group at Circle Artwork Company in regards to the wonderful artistic output from this area.”

Alongside the cease outcomes achieved by Tanzanian modernists Ok.F. Msangi and Sam Ntiro, the public sale delivered robust outcomes by Kenyan modern artists. Painter Justus Kyalo’s umber 2021 composition Extra Mild a Little fetched KES1 056 600 / US$8 181, and Beatrice Wanjiku’s mixed-media portray We Are Who We Are, from 2010, achieved KES 939 200 / US$ 7 272. The highest promoting Ugandan artist had been Geoffrey Mukasa – represented by a nonetheless life painted a 12 months earlier than his dying in 2009, offered for KES 1 174 000 / US$ 9 090 – and Fabian Mpagi, whose modernist work from 1979, Summary Figures, earned KES 950 940 / US$ 7 363.

Artwork Public sale East Africa | Strauss & Co was introduced on Strauss & Co’s digital community. The foreign money for the sale was Kenyan Shilling (KSh). All collections of works offered are in Nairobi, Kenya.

www.straussart.co.za

About Strauss & Co
Established in 2009, Strauss & Co is the main artwork public sale home in Africa, specialising in trendy and modern artwork, collectable design, high-quality wine and jewelry. With a deal with African and worldwide artwork, Strauss & Co caters to artwork lovers globally with its curated mixture of marquee reside auctions, single-artist gross sales, highlight displays and widespread month-to-month on-line gross sales. A pioneer of borderless digital gross sales, Strauss & Co has a big international consumer checklist inquisitive about artists, designers and wine producers from Africa and past. Non-public treaty companies are additionally out there. 

Strauss & Co is the main reseller of labor by blue-chip artists William Kentridge, J.H. Pierneef and Irma Stern. It has achieved the best variety of information for South African artists at public sale. Notable information embrace the R31.9m / US$ 1.78m sale of Vladimir Tretchikoff’s 1955 portrait Girl from the Orient in 2025. Increasing from its authentic format of 4 reside gross sales yearly in 2009, which earned R100m, Strauss & Co has persistently grown its revenues, incomes R388m / $21.6m from 65 auctions in 2024.

The corporate actively champions artists and makers from Africa in international centres throughout Africa and Europe via dynamic engagements with companions in cities comparable to Berlin, London, Nairobi and Venice. In South Africa, Strauss & Co helps numerous schooling and neighborhood engagement programmes, together with a year-round exhibition programme in Cape City and Johannesburg. Artwork Membership is an additional expression of its perception in a sustainable ecosystem and offers collectors with alternative to be taught and socialise at occasions in Cape City, Johannesburg, London and Stellenbosch.

Nairobi, Kenya, 5 November 2025

53 of 66 tons offered
80.30% lot sell-through charge
100.00% worth sell-through charge

Public sale Complete: KES 29.777 Million

TOP TEN LOTS

Lot 26 Kiure Francis Msangi Tanzanian 1936 – 2003 Baobab beneath the Pink Moon 1968 signed and dated ’68 acrylic on board 61 by 102cm excluding body Offered KES 3 522 000

Lot 24 Kiure Francis Msangi Tanzanian 1936 – 2003 Lusiki 1961 signed and dated 61; inscribed with the artist’s identify, the date and the title ‘Nude’ on the reverse oil on canvas laid down on board 66,5 by 111,5cm excluding body Offered KES 1 584 900

Lot 54 Miska Mohammed Sudanese 1995- The Motion of Daisies 2021 signed acrylic on canvas 100 by 150 by 2,5cm, unframed Offered KES 1 150 520

Lot 31 Justus Kyalo Kenyan 1972- Extra Mild a Little 2021 signed, dated 1/2021 and inscribed with the title on the reverse acrylic on canvas 120 by 99,5 by 2,5cm, unframed Offered KES 1 056 600

Lot 16 Fabian Mpagi Ugandan 1953-2002 Summary Figures 1979 inscribed with the artist’s identify, the date, the title and medium on a label adhered to the reverse oil on board 57,5 by 46cm excluding body; 88 by 76,5 by 4,5cm together with body Offered KES 950 940

Lot 45 Beatrice Wanjiku Kenyan 1978- We Are Who We Are 2010 signed, dated and inscribed ‘Immortality collection’ on the reverse acrylic and located objects on canvas 150 by 100 by 4cm, unframed Offered KES 939 200