Sotheby's has disbanded its dedicated African Modern and contemporary art department, a move that comes as auction sales in the category plummeted 45% in 2024 to $43.9 million, according to an ArtTactic report. The department, launched in 2016 with specialist Hannah O'Leary from Bonhams, was a major boost for the sector, but its small sales totals made it vulnerable during Sotheby's wider cost-cutting. O'Leary will now integrate African art into broader contemporary and Modern auctions, while other houses like Bonhams and Strauss continue to hold dedicated sales, focusing increasingly on 20th-century artists.
This restructuring matters because it signals a cooling of a once-hot market segment, where speculative interest in younger contemporary African artists has waned. However, momentum is shifting toward overlooked 20th-century figures like Gerard Sekoto and Ben Enwonwu, boosted by events such as the Venice Biennale and the Centre Pompidou's 'Paris Noir' exhibition. On the ground, art fairs like 1-54 Marrakech and Investec Cape Town Art Fair remain strong, suggesting the downturn is part of a broader art market stress rather than a crisis specific to African art.