By Nii B. Andrews
The end of year auction sales for contemporary African art (CAA) are soon to commence in London, Paris, New York, Joburg, Lagos and Accra.
For collectors of CAA, it appears that a significant number of buyers have shifted towards lower price points.
They are doing so by looking for undervalued historically important artists or interesting examples of works by established artists that have so far been overlooked.
Regular readers to this site will have no difficulty in identifying artists and artwork that fall within this cohort.
However, it is important to remember that considerable savings can accrue from a private sale, before the work goes to auction.
Savvy collectors (and fat cats) are always poised to take advantage of this.
The savings include the buyer’s premium which is often at least 10- 15% of the hammer price.
Since the CAA share of the global contemporary art market is estimated at 0.01%, tremendous value exists in CAA with annual returns estimated at 10-20%.
Bonhams, the first international auction house to host stand-alone modern and contemporary African art sales has listed a Ben Enwonwu painting “Nigerian Symphony” for £100 000- £150 000 for it’s upcoming October 5 auction.
For the same auction, another Enwonwu painting “Negritude on Red” has an estimate of £60 000- £90 000; a rare work by Demas Nwoko, titled “Metro Ride” is also listed for exactly the same amount.
With the quality of work available in CAA, it is therefore not surprising that CAA provides substantial aesthetic, emotional and investment returns for its knowledgeable collectors.
Quite aside from the investment returns, the CAA collector contributes to or impacts on the History of Art itself.
He does so by endorsing a particular work or artist; by recognising its value. The collector thus takes a position and commits himself – he has skin in the game.
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