Over the past six years, Swann has been making a market in African American art. With the exception of a stumble in 2010, Swann has done a solid job building the sales volume. First, there were semi-annual sales in February and October. Now the auction house is running three sales a year which seems to be yielding more sales.

Over the last two years, the secret to market growth has been a lowering of average prices, not the usual rise we often see in other markets.