African Demand Drives Growth, More African Art Sales Coming

With half of the buyers in Bonhams Africa sale coming from the continent, there’s a growing internal demand for African art which is having an effect on the broader, global market’s prices and sales volumes, the Australian Financial Review reports:

Along with a rise in rich patrons from Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and oil producer, advances in technology, media and the Internet have helped broaden the audience, Jean Fritts, a senior director of African and Oceanic Art at Sotheby’s, said in an interview in London.

Sotheby’s is considering holding specialized African art auctions as its total annual African and Oceanic sales have risen to $US84 million in 2014 from about $US4 million two decades ago, Fritts said. […]

In Nigeria, regular auctions have been running since 2008, with almost 20 sales trading a total of about 1.2 billion naira ($US6 million),  said.

The bull market for contemporary African art (afr.com)