VOA常速英语2008年-South African Art Fetches Top Prices at Auction

By Catherine Drew
London
04 February 2008
 

The international auction¹ house Bonhams has held a sale of South African art in London that achieved record prices for a number of works. The auction house says this marks a coming of age for South African art, proving demand for it has reached beyond the domestic market to international bidders². Catherine Drew reports.

The leading lot in the collection of nearly 300 pieces of art was the 1937 "Still life with chrysanthemums³ and a pumpkin," by Irma Stern.

Brisk bidding pushed the price to $635,000.

Other works by Stern, a Cape⁴ Town artist who died in 1966, fetched tens of thousands of dollars.

George Plumtree is head of business development at Bonhams. "I was working in an auction house out in South Africa 10 years ago and this sort of sale in London with these sort of prices would have been almost unthinkable then," he said.

Stern was the most prominent artist in the diverse collection that Bonhams gathered from around the world.

Another major artist with several pieces was Gerald Sekoto. Many consider him the first African artist to paint in a European manner.

Sekoto's works also fetched prices in the tens of thousands of dollars. He died in 1993 at the age of 80.

Giles Peppiat is Bonhams' director of South Africa Art. He says the auction house is so confident of the demand for South African art that it plans to hold similar auctions⁵ twice a year.  "The market is going through this large upheaval⁶, because in some ways the South African market has been so domestic and it can't exist in that bubble anymore and the prices outside are becoming at such a level that people really want to export them."

Those who have watched the market for years say the world is only just waking up to South Africa's artists. "Only a few years ago, the geographical⁷ isolation⁸ of South Africa, and also partly its political past, meant that there was a degree of isolation and therefore these artists were not really looked at by non-South Africans," Plumtree said.

The auction at Bonhams proves that has changed, so much so that the South African government has become concerned the country could lose some of its most valuable works of art. Two pieces at the London auction were sold on the proviso that they remain in South Africa.

1 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

2 bidders   

n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bidders should proceed only if they intend on using a PayPal account to complete payment. Bidders的唯一形式，应继续只当他们在使用贝宝帐户，以完成付款打算。 来自互联网
• The other bidders for the contract complained that it had not been a fair contest. 其他竞标人抱怨说该合同的竞标不公平。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 chrysanthemums   

n.菊花( chrysanthemum的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The cold weather had most deleterious consequences among the chrysanthemums. 寒冷的天气对菊花产生了极有害的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The chrysanthemums are in bloom; some are red and some yellow. 菊花开了， 有红的，有黄的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

5 auctions   

n.拍卖，拍卖方式( auction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They picked up most of the furniture at auctions in country towns. 他们大部分的家具都是在乡村镇上的拍卖处买的。 来自辞典例句
• Our dealers didn't want these cars, so we had to dump them at auctions. 我们的承销商都不要这些车子，因此我们只好贱价拍卖。 来自辞典例句

6 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

7 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

8 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。