Kenyan artwork is going under the hammer for the first time at a major auction house in London. It is one of the latest signs that people affected by the economic crisis in Europe are increasingly turning to African art for less expensive work. In recent years, international buyers have invested millions of dollars in [...]
Merton D. Simpson Left Fortune in Art, Yet Family Has No Money to Bury Him
March 26, 2013 | Posted by
Family and friends gathered in Charleston, S.C., on Friday for the funeral of the New York-based artist Merton D. Simpson, a painter and pioneering champion of African art who accumulated a collection said to be worth millions of dollars. Gathering in the city of his birth, eulogists celebrated Mr. Simpson’s expertise on the saxophone, his [...]
Merton D. Simpson, African Art Expert, Owner Dead at 84
March 17, 2013 | Posted by
Merton D. Simpson, an artist who became a trailblazing collector and gallery owner specializing in African art, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 84. Mr. Simpson had had several strokes and suffered from a number of prolonged illnesses, including diabetes and dementia, said his son Merton Jr. and Alaina Simone, director of the Merton [...]
Nkundu African Art Relic Sold at Christie’s Paris for $3.5 Million
December 13, 2012 | Posted by
At Tuesday’s night sale of African and Oceanic art at Christie’s Paris, a nearly nine-foot-tall Nkundu relic became the year’s most expensive African object at auction when it sold to an anonymous buyer for $3,526,600, vastly outstripping its $260,000-$390,000 pre-sale estimate. The artifact came from the collection of painter Jean Willy Mestach, who bought it [...]
The Centuries-Old Practice of Looting African Art Continues
August 5, 2012 | Posted by
DJENNE-DJENNO, one of the best-known archaeological sites in sub-Saharan Africa, spreads over several acres of rutted fields near the present city of Djenne in central Mali. The ruts are partly caused by erosion, but they’re also scars from decades of digging, by archaeologists in search of history and looters looking for art to sell. When [...]
