A painting of an Omani man by famed South African artist Irma Stern has fetched $1.38 million (Dh5 million) at auction.
Stern is arguably South Africa's most celebrated artist, and achieved international recognition before she died in 1966. However, the pinnacle of her fame came posthumously, as her paintings have continued to break records at auction in recent years.
The Oman embassy in Cape Town announced the sale in a tweet.
Simply titled Arab, Stern painted the work in 1945, drawing on her trips to Zanzibar in 1939 and 1945 as inspiration.
“The painting dates back to the reign of Sultan Khalifa bin Harib bin Thwaini Al-Said,” the embassy said.
The oil on canvas work is a colourful portrait of an Omani man dressed in traditional garments.
The auction was held on March 18.
Stern's paintings generally fall under the hammer for top dollar. In 2010, one of her works, Gladioli, sold for an all-time high (for both the artist and for South Africa) of R13.3 million (Dh3.4 million), but that record was smashed later that month with the sale of Bahora Girl for R26.7 million (Dh6.9 million). But both these sales were dwarfed by Arab Priest, which sold for £3 million (Dh14.5 million) in March 2011 at Bonham's, London.
Here's the painting in full in the original Zanzibar frame:

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Pre-school (three - five years)
You can’t yet talk about investing or borrowing, but introduce a “classic” money bank and start putting gifts and allowances away. When the child wants a specific toy, have them save for it and help them track their progress.
Early childhood (six - eight years)
Replace the money bank with three jars labelled ‘saving’, ‘spending’ and ‘sharing’. Have the child divide their allowance into the three jars each week and explain their choices in splitting their pocket money. A guide could be 25 per cent saving, 50 per cent spending, 25 per cent for charity and gift-giving.
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Open a bank savings account and help your child establish a budget and set a savings goal. Introduce the notion of ‘paying yourself first’ by putting away savings as soon as your allowance is paid.
Young teens (12 - 14 years)
Change your child’s allowance from weekly to monthly and help them pinpoint long-range goals such as a trip, so they can start longer-term saving and find new ways to increase their saving.
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Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
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Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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