Strauss & Co is pleased to announce details of a single-owner auction of modern and contemporary art, Cape furniture, ceramics and a library of books assembled by the legendary South African auctioneer Stephan Welz and his wife Carmen Welz. The sale Deep Roots: Selected Works from Stephan and Carmen Welz (Wednesday, 27 May 2026) includes a large consignment of paintings, drawings and prints by Welz’s father, the acclaimed modernist painter Jean Welz
“It is a bittersweet sale for us,” says Alastair Meredith, Director and Head of Sale, Strauss & Co. “In 2008, Stephan Welz came out of retirement to establish Strauss & Co with respected business leaders Elisabeth Bradley and Dr. Conrad Strauss. Drawing on deep reservoirs of experience, he helped transform the start-up business into the largest auction house in Africa and a global leader in the secondary market for South African art.
It is an immense privilege to be handling the objects and artworks he lived with every day in his home in Parkview, Johannesburg.”Deep Roots: Selected Works from Stephan and Carmen Welz will be presented as a two-part sale, with the modern and contemporary art, Cape furniture and diverse ceramics presented in a standalone live-virtual auction.
A separate online-only sale of Welz’s library of artist monographs and reference books on silverware, which informed his landmark book Cape Silver & Silversmiths (1976), will open on Strauss & Co’s website on 30 April 2026 and close 28 May 2026 from 2pm.
The art consignment includes paintings by Irma Stern, Frans Oerder and Jean Welz. Deep Roots: Selected Works from Stephan and Carmen Welz includes 58 works by Jean Welz, an Austrian-born architect who in later years excelled as a painter after settling in the Cape. They include abstract and figurative paintings, drawings and prints. There are also works by Karel Nel, William Timlin and Adolph Jentsch on offer.
The furniture consignment reflects Welz’s appreciation for period furnishings and includes a 14-seater dining-room table, military and navel chests, Cape chairs, a writing bureau and other pieces. The ceramics range from blue-and-white porcelain and Victorian figurines to pieces by local makers Kalahari and Linnware. Estimates will be attractive to a broad range of buyers.
Works from Deep Roots: Selected Works from Stephan and Carmen Welz is on display in Strauss & Co’s gallery in Houghton. The intimate room displays, curated by Wilhelm van Rensburg, Chief Curator, Strauss & Co, offers an interpretation of the domestic origin and milieu of the works being offered.
This single-owner auction forms part of Johannesburg Auction Week (26–27 May 2026), a flagship series of auctions including the live-virtual Evening Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art at 7pm on Tuesday, 26 May 2026) and online-only Day Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art closing on Tuesday, 26 May from 2pm.Johannesburg Auction Week coincides with RMB Latitudes 2026 (22 – 24 May 2026), a vibrant event held annually at Shepstone Gardens and now a fixture of Johannesburg’s autumn art calendar.
Strauss & Co will return to the fair with an exhibition of noteworthy and high-value works from its flagship Johannesburg auctions.
About Stephan Welz:
Born in 1943 in the Breede River Valley town of Worcester, Welz was the third of five sons born to émigrés Jean Welz and Inger Christensen. Welz’s aesthetic education, the foundation of his professional achievements, was decisively influenced by his proximity to artists.
Irma Stern and Walter Battiss were frequent houseguests in the Welz family home. Speaking in 2007, Welz warmly recalled the gift of a budgie by painter Cecil Higgs when he was a child. She also painted him as a young boy. He also remembered an overnight stay at painter Gregoire Boonzaier’s home, an early champion of his father’s austere but lyrical paintings. Welz’s formal education in the art business began in earnest after he took up an administrative position in UNISA’s fledgling art department in Pretoria.
He worked alongside Walter Battiss. Welz was a first-hand witness to his mentor’s transformation from respected modernist painter into Fookian trickster when, in 1967, he attended Yes-No, Battiss’s landmark happening in Pretoria.
In 1970, shortly after obtaining a commerce degree from UNISA, Welz joined Sotheby Parke Bernet, a new auction house established by Reinhold Cassirer and Jane Harraway in Johannesburg. Cassirer, a discriminating German émigré, is remembered for professionalising auction houses in South Africa. Welz, his key protégé, inherited the mantle when, in 1980, Cassirer retired to pursue other interests.
Welz held the reins of his eponymous company until 2006, when he sold Stephan Welz & Co. During this 26-year period Welz presided over the incredible growth in interest and value of South African art at auction. Welz retired to his farm Blomvlei at Tonteldoos, near Dullstroom, where managed a herd of drought-resistant Tuli cattle.
However, in 2008, Welz came out of retirement to head up the new auction house Strauss & Co. Shortly before his death in 2015, Welz knocked down Alexis Preller’s oil and gesso work The Creation of Adam I(1968) for R8.5 million. It set a new auction record for the artist, one of many in a career studded with achievements and accolades.
Strauss & Co Viewing Times
89 Central Street, Houghton, Johannesburg
Weekdays | 9am – 4pm
Saturday and Sunday 23-24 May | 9am – 4pm
