Lagos (AFP)

There was Tutu, the "African Mona Lisa" sold last year to 1.4 million euros. Then in mid-October, for 1.3 million euros, Christine, another portrait of the famous Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu: two records for the "father" of African modernism, like a Nigerian art market in full effervescence.

Ten years ago, major African artists were virtually absent from international auctions. The continent is now attracting the big names in contemporary and modern art, as London's Bonhams and Sotheby's have sold Enwonwu's two masterpieces, which died in 1994 and whose rating is steadily climbing.

"Africa is one of the most dynamic markets in the world today, and Nigeria shares first place on the podium with South Africa," Giles Peppiatt, director of African art, told AFP at Bonhams, the first in Europe to have bet on the continent since 2007, with the big sale "Africa Now".

In the vibrant mega-city of Lagos, with its 20 million inhabitants, the cultural season culminates this weekend with the international fair "ART X", which has been for three years as a rendezvous, a great Mass of modern and contemporary art with a business purpose assumed.

The famous (and expensive) Tutu, "lost" for almost 40 years and found in 2018, almost by chance, in a London apartment, was precisely the "surprise" of the last edition that attracted several thousand people. In front of the painting of the mysterious Yoruba princess, Nollywood actresses, traditional conductors, wealthy collectors and artists came together.

At the end of the year, the economic capital becomes that of glamor and arts - money too. It is crowded from one exhibition to another, from ART X to the biennale of contemporary art, through Lagos Fashion Week and the LagosPhoto festival, all of which take place at the same time, in October. November.

Another sign of this general craze, new galleries like Art Twenty One have opened their doors in recent years. And the Art House Contemporary Limited auction house, whose turnover is certainly more modest than that of European houses, regularly presents the most popular local artists: Enwonwu, Yusuf Grillo, El Anatsui and Peju Alatise.

- Collectors or investors? -

This year, some twenty galleries and more than 90 artists will be represented at ART X. Representatives from Tate Modern (London) and Smithsonian (Washington) are expected. It is the artist Emeka Ogboh, based between Berlin and Lagos, invited to the last Fiac (International Fair of Contemporary Art) in Paris, who prepared the sound universe of this fourth edition.

If the appetite for contemporary African art continues to grow, apart from the few nuggets that exceed one million dollars, the majority of works are still sold at prices "reasonable" in comparison with the rest of the world: "between $ 10,000 and $ 60,000, "says Giles Peppiatt.

For this expert who travels regularly to Nigeria, "Events like ART X are changing the game, they are putting the spotlight on Lagos and attracting a lot of collectors eager to discover new works, it's a very exciting time."

The West African oil giant is one of the most billion-dollar countries in the world and a rapidly growing middle class. Rich bankers and Nigerian industrialists are today the main buyers of contemporary art.

As the biggest bids take place in Europe, where the market is better structured, with less chance of falling on fakes, they take the plane to buy works in London or New York and bring them back to Africa, has fun Jess Castellote, director of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, a private museum that will open next year in the suburbs of Lagos.

"There are passionate collectors who want to reconnect with their heritage, their culture, but we also see more and more investors: some Nigerians who put 250,000 pounds in a luxury watch or a car today prefer to invest in a canvas or a sculpture, "he says.

In Nigeria, as in South Africa, multi-million dollar investment funds have been created to acquire works and resell them as dearly as possible.

© 2019 AFP