Growing calls for looted African art to be returned are making an impact on private collecting patterns, according to the latest ‘State of the African Art’ collector survey. 

Conducted for the online magazine ÌMÒ DÁRA, which connects African art collectors with dealers and academics, the survey is based on feedback from 250 collectors, 19% of whom said they've paused their collecting of historical African art because of the current restitution debate.  An even greater number  - 35% - consider the potential impact of restitution each time they make a purchasing decision. 

“I plan to continue collecting,” said one respondent, “although restitution looms heavy on my mind”.

The third edition of this annual survey, designed to shine a light on collecting patterns for historical and contemporary African art, covers a much wider ground than just historical items from the colonial era.  Contemporary African art has become a major growth sector for galleries and art collectors in the last few years and prices for some contemporary artists have been sky rocketing.  As a result, buying patterns in the contemporary sector form a large part of this survey.

But in the historical sector, the feedback from collectors, gathered from 31 different countries, reveals a market in a state of flux - certainly with potential for further growth, but also with plenty of reasons why buyers of historical works are growing cautious.

Even though most collectors don't feel their works are ever likely to be the subject of a future restitution claim, collecting any item tainted with a colonial past is attracting caution,  There are other pressing concerns as well, including a question mark about the extent of real knowledge of African artefacts among dealers, the excessive number of copies now circulating in the marketplace and the declining importance collectors attach to an item's provenance before making a purchase.

The survey also reveals that the overall number of collectors in the historical, as opposed to the contemporary African art sector, is declining.   Fewer young people than before appear to be interested in collecting African ethnographic art. The survey suggests this is because the older generation “has sold out and is dying out”  Younger buyers are more engaged with contemporary African art and the communities from where their art is made.

The survey doesn’t make happy reading for dealers. 

Immediately after the Sarr-Savoy report was published recommending the repatriation of large swathes of France's African legacy (November 2018), dealers were optimistic about future trends in collecting African art.  However, the views of collectors don't appear to align with this optimism.

Although 70% of private collectors said they continue to rely on dealers and galleries for making purchases - most believe buying from a dealer is still safer than buying from an auction house - 76% of respondents believe dealer prices have grown too high. Their shortage of real expertise is also criticised, leading to a wider circulation of copies and fakes. Manipulation and changing the appearance of objects before resale is another concern among collectors, along with a frustration at dealers who impugn the authenticity of items held by other dealers. 

Such behaviour is not considered good for a healthy trading market in African art.  But then neither is it new.

As in other sectors, online auctions and social media are grabbing a growing share of sales (61%), although online sales of African art, like antiquities, are especially prone to shady provenances.

Why do people still collect historical African art? Aesthetics appear to override context. The survey reveals that most collectors prioritise artwork quality (74%) ahead of authenticity (33%). And only 28% of all survey respondents cited provenance as the most important factor before making a purchase, although it seems the importance of provenance is still greater among older collectors and those with deeper pockets.

Explaining why he believes provenance is the “illness of the art market”, a Swiss private collector added, “because most so-called ‘experts’ have no clue at all about the subject”.

As the subject of restitution preys on the minds of a growing number of private collectors, we shall continue to monitor where a market, already cautious about provenance and authenticity, is heading in the future.

2020 State of the African Art Market: Voice of the Collector

Published February 2020

Photo: A Baule statue, 20th cent

Courtesy of Private Collection