Swann has been diligently developing the auction market for African-American art these past six years. All of that hard work has come to fruition this year as sales leapt well above $5m. How much of this is due to changes in Swann’s schedule where the sales are now held in April and December or to the growing interest in African American artists, we can’t say. But the numbers of yesterday’s sale speak for themselves. Total sales and average prices in both April and yesterday grew by startling jumps as you can see in the chart below.