Sotho horn snuff bottle: Sotheby's Paris December 2007 - Lot 101 Euro 72,000Even experienced collectors are surprised when I tell them how well southern African art has performed as an investment over the last 15 years. Over the next few weeks I will be posting a few record-setting objects from past auctions.
Collectors should note that most of the great southern African objects are sold privately and thus won't be reflected here. Objects have reached in the $25,000 to $350,000 range and it won't be long before they reach the half million dollar mark - not bad for utilitarian objects seen as nothing more than decorative or ethnographic material until a few years ago.
The growth in value has been driven by a number of factors: the landmark exhibition of the Lowen (now Oppenheimer) collection in the 1990's; the championing of the art by dealers and collectors such as Conru, Guisson and Horstmann; the publication of numerous new books on private collections which have served to educate the collecting public.
Tsonga neckrest: Sotheby's Paris December 2006 - Lot 227 Euro 74,400
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