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Dozens of venues, including the Association of
Visual Arts Gallery and the converted grain silos of the Zeitz
Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA), are catering to
aficionados seeking a good investment as well as the general
public.
At a packed auction on Monday, bidding reached new highs as
collectors phoning in from as far away as Chile and Canada
competed against each other and the audience.
"We sold approximately 106 million rands ($7.3 million) worth of
art, including commission...which is a record for South Africa
and for Africa as a continent," said Frank Kilbourn, executive
chairman of auction house Strauss and Co. "It bodes extremely
well for the future of African and South African art."
More than 600 lots were sold, and on offer were a wide range of
items: from Chinese and Japanese ceramics to works of South
African heavyweights Stern, Gerard Sekoto and Alexis Preller.
Stern's paintings took the top three spots by value, with the
highest bidder paying just over 20 million rand for portrait
"Arab". The painting, still in its original carved wooden frame,
is a previously unrecorded portrait of an Omani nobleman from
the court of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
Kilbourn said local buyers snatched up Stern's works, although
there was strong competition from abroad.
"We've got credible auction houses and a great gallery system
and the world is now realizing that we've come of age," he said.
"It’s a great place to look at art and to buy art."
The wide variety of contemporary works on offer include prints
and drawings by South Africa's William Kentridge, who has
exhibited in New York and Paris, as well as the surreal
canvasses of former prisoner-turned-artist Blessing Ngobeni.
The potential investment value of some of the continent's
historic art figures and a favorable dollar-rand exchange rate
are also attracting foreign buyers, Kilbourn said, adding South
Africa's art market is valued at around 2-3 billion rand a year.
"Definitely, Americans and Europeans are the largest buyers of
African art or South African art," Darren Julien, chief
executive of U.S-based Julien's Auctions said.
"I'm confident the Chinese will be following soon after, as they
generally pick up on hot collecting markets."
The launch of Zeitz MOCAA last year in Cape Town, touted as the
world's largest contemporary African art museum, has helped
pique interest in Africa's rich artistic heritage.
"It becomes this port...to experience the rest of the continent,
an entry way," said Precious Mhone, co-curator of a
multi-disciplinary exhibition of African artists at MOCAA.
"There are all these spaces that speak to different forms of
artistic practice and so having (this) only enriches the art
scene in Cape Town."
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and
Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
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