African art

What are the next challenges for cultural restitution?

The full story of colonial plundering lies not in museum displays but in unopened, uncatalogued boxes in store rooms

Restitutionanalysis

Why Macron's radical promise to return African treasures has stalled

Four years after a landmark pledge to hand back colonial loot, French government has opposed a new restitution bill backed by the Senate

Phillips taps into demand for contemporary Ghanaian art with selling exhibition

Birds of a Feather, held in collaboration with the Ghanaian company Artemartis, will run next month at the auction house's Berkeley Square headquarters in London

Bookspreview

Spring awakening: new art books out soon, from African Art and Bernini to self-taught artists and Franz Kafka

Our books editor selects some of the tempting titles arriving on bookstore shelves in the coming months

The Met begins $70m renovation of African, ancient American and Oceanic art galleries

The galleries, housed in the Michael C. Rockefeller wing of the museum, will be modernised to better contextualise the collection and illustrate the ‘complex story of cultural development over the last 5,000 years’

‘Often we consider Blackness as a monolith’: Pérez museum presents global Black identity in all its diversity

Exhibition of features contemporary works by more than 30 artists from Africa and the African diaspora from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection

Colonial loot restitution debate enters UK parliament with new committee on African reparations

An all-party parliamentary group headed by the MP for Streatham aims to “start a discussion and educate people”

Art fairspreview

Paintings and African art to dominate at Abu Dhabi Art

Emirati art fair expects lots of US collectors as international visits to Dubai Expo give "a really good indication that people have the confidence to travel again"

Art X Lagos puts NFTs by African artists in the limelight

Nigeria's contemporary art fair, on until Sunday in physical form and online until 21 November, has partnered with Superrare to show digital works by artists such as Youssef El Idrissi, Linda Dounia and Rendani Nemakhavhani

Strong sales at 1-54 fair—with more African dealers than ever

Twenty galleries from Africa are among 47 exhibitors at the fair in London this week, with some taking advantage of the UK's newly relaxed pandemic travel rules

Ethiopian gallery Addis Fine Art to open space in London

One of the few Black-owned galleries in London, the space will open with a show of Nirit Takele in October as the gallery takes part in Frieze London for the first time

Art marketinterview

Abuja, Miami, Seoul: gallery director Dolly Kola-Balogun maps out her path to African art’s world domination

The 27-year-old founder of Retro Africa talks about her expansion plans and how she is helping to build a contemporary art scene in Nigeria

The Met will return two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

The Benin Court plaques donated in 1991 with more than 150 other works, have been deaccessioned, while a third object, an Ife Head offered for purchase, will instead be restituted

Scottish university claims Benin bronze bought for £750 is worth £500,000—but is that now really the case?

Aberdeen University is returning its looted 18th-century oba head to the Nigerian federal government

Global survey: where in the world are the Benin bronzes?

Around 160 institutions hold looted Benin artefacts, but how many are prepared to give them back? We asked museums in five countries for their position on restitution

Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu’s greatest work is much loved by the art market—but it should mean more to art history too

Editions of the Anyanwu sculpture always attract attention at auction, but the legacy of the work and its maker are largely ignored both in his home country and the international art scene

Researchers discover trove of works by major African Modernists in rural Scotland

Paintings and drawings have been reattributed to some of the continent's most famous 20th-century names

Art marketanalysis

As the market for their artists booms, African galleries take control by expanding to the West

With outposts springing up from London to Los Angeles, dealers are putting their artists on the global map

Restitutioninterview

Why African voices are crucial to the debate over the return of colonial loot

Senegalese art historian El Hadji Malick Ndiaye says discussions and decisions about the restitution of African artefacts cannot be dictated by the West

‘The movement is unstoppable’: African scholars and activists hail German plan to return Benin bronzes

“There is simply no moral ground for the confiscation of African artefacts in Western museums,” says the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe

Prizesnews

First art prize dedicated to female African artists launches today

Accra-based Gallery 1957 organises prize to celebrate its fifth birthday, with all-star jury set to announce cash prizes for three winners

Museumscomment

Could 2021 be the year of the African museum?

While the West continues to grapple with its colonial past, institutions from Togo to Cairo are creating more expansive models to celebrate art

Congolese activist who tried to seize an artefact from the Louvre is fined €5,000

Mwazulu Diyabanza says that “museums do not deserve respect” as restitution debate intensifies

Africaanalysis

'Restitution is important but it is not essential': the African museums building a homegrown cultural revival

Though African institutions want looted artefacts to return home, they are more preoccupied with promoting living artists and treasures

Art marketanalysis

Africa’s art market grows even amid adversity

In a year marked by closures, cancellations and postponements, African art fairs are going ahead with new models and the continent’s galleries are growing

Congolese collector Sindika Dokolo reportedly dies in Dubai diving accident

Tributes pour in for “defender of African art”—who was also being investigated by Angolan authorities

Man tries to take artefact from Louvre—just two weeks after being charged for the same crime at Quai Branly

Congolese activist Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza, fined €1,000 earlier this month, will go to court again later today

Francenews

Congolese activist fined €1,000 for trying to seize African funeral pole from Paris museum

Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza and the other activists who removed the object from display at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac say their actions are a protest against colonial looting

Houston politician's mysterious collection of African artefacts raises alarm bells

Hundreds of pieces of African art are being stored in a publicly funded warehouse by the Harris County commissioner Rodney Ellis with little explanation of their background