Another good way to spend your lovely oil money
Jul 29th 2010 |
Lagos
IN A suburb of Lagos,
Nigeria’s business capital, Yemisi Shyllon
lives in a house full of bronze statues of African tribal rulers and brightly
coloured beadwork landscapes. He may be
Nigeria’s biggest art collector, with some
6,000 pieces by his count. “I don’t go out much,” he says, “I have enough to
look at here.”
Mr Shyllon, who runs an engineering company, is one of a small circle of
Nigerian businessmen who own huge collections of local art. Sammy Olagbaju,
a 70-year-old retired stockbroker who has lived in London
and New York,
is another avid collector. One Lagos-based banker has over 600 pieces.
With 250 ethnic groups and around 150m people, Africa’s
most populous country has many sources of artistic inspiration. A number of
artists from western Nigeria
use the bright colours and beadwork of the Yoruba, whereas those from the oil-rich
south-east sometimes look to their region’s uli style, with simpler drawings
on walls or pots.
More recently, these collectors have realised that they have also been canny
investors. Their hobby has started to attract foreign attention—and cash. At an
auction of African art in New York
in March, the five most expensive lots were Nigerian. A painting by the late Ben
Enwonwu went for $91,000.
Some buyers are speculating that the Nigerian works are still undervalued. Giles
Peppiatt, director of contemporary African art at Bonhams, a British auction house
that hosted the New York
sale, says prices will still rise in this niche market.
Auctions are also happening in Lagos,
where oil and banking have made a few very rich, though most people still live in
grinding poverty. “There’s a lot of money in
Nigeria,” says Mr Peppiatt. “And though it might
sound cynical, money and art are inextricably linked.”