African Art at Auctions

Mail&Guardian’s image of some recently auctioned African art

The Main&GuardianAfrica has an article about the increasingly vibrant prices fetched by African art at various auctions. Over the past five years, African art has attracted the attention of top-line auction houses like Sotherby’s and Bonhams, along with several new auction houses in countries like Nigeria and South Africa. This new attention is a boon for contemporary artists, as their works finally begin to generate global value and equity. The works of artists such as Ben Enwonwu are now selling for decent sums of money (though still highly undervalued in relation to their astounding global careers), and those of the Ghanaian-born, Nigerian-based contemporary artist El Anatsui is rapidly crossing the million dollar mark for single pieces. All in all, these are interesting developments.

Personally, I am happy to see works by contemporary African artists receive their due in terms of the financial value accorded them. I am less sanguine about the sale of tradition African artworks in these auctions, which continue to fetch astronomical sums for various Western collectors who own these works. Many important African artworks that are being sold in such actions arrived in the West through acts of theft and brigandage, and the fact that their value now goes to foreign collectors raises once again the issue of “who owns Africa’s cultural patrimony”?. I am concerned that the African cultures who produced these works in the first place have had no profit from their products, even as specific historical pieces now fetch upwards of $50 million at auction. We seem to have ended up in a situation where African/black labor never seems to benefit Africans, and this is something that needs to change.