Johannesburg - A "magnificent" still life by celebrated SA artist Irma Stern is expected to fetch more than R7m at an auction in Cape Town on October 11.
"Formerly in the collection of the late Johannes Lambertus van Schaik, founder of the famous publishing house JL Van Schaik which now belongs to Naspers, this remarkable painting was acquired by him directly from the artist in the 1940s and passed down to his son Jan Jacob," executive director of auctioneer Strauss & Co, Bina Genovese said in a statement on Wednesday.
In May this year the auctioneer sold Stern's Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit for just over R7.5m, a world record for a still life by the artist.
The company said this Gladioli might just break that record. Painted in 1939, five years after Stern produced Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit, the painting exemplified Stern at the height of her powers.