After more than half a century, the Irma Stern Museum shut its doors last week (Friday 31 October 2025) for good. Sadly, the trust didn’t even give art lovers a chance to visit it one last time before closure. Nevertheless, committee members insist this is not the end for the South African artist’s collection …
For more than 50 years, the Irma Stern Museum was administered by the University of Cape Town (UCT). As such, the arrangement was unique in that it was part museum, heritage site and educational resource. Nevertheless, the closure has elicited shock from the South African art world.
IRMA STERN MUSEUM CLOSES
However, the good news is the Irma Stern Collection lives on. In a joint statement from UCT and the Irma Stern Museum: “The collection will have new life breathed into it next year (2026). And there are exciting plans to present Irma Stern’s work in new ways to engage an even wider South African and international audience.”
Therefore, the collection will be moved from ‘The Firs,’ to another secure archival facility in the meantime. The former was the home-and-studio of the South African artist from 1927 until her death in 1966. Included in the collection are oil paintings, works on paper, ceramics and sculpture. There are also artefacts Stern collected during her travels through Africa, Europe and the Far East.
PROMOTION OF THE FINE ARTS
Irma Stern’s portrait of a Cape Muslim woman recently sold for R21.7 million at auction. This marked a historic moment for South African art as the most expensive art piece ever. Moreover, the committee said that the former UCT-campus museum would be ‘repurposed’ accordingly.
Stern’s final will and testament stipulated that her art and artefacts be held in trust ‘for the encouragement and promotion of the Fine Arts.’ As such, the Irma Stern Museum was founded officially in 1971, under the administration of UCT.
What do you think? Did you ever visit the UCT Irma Stern Museum? And are you sad to hear it shutting its doors. Let us know in the comments section below …
