Authentic African Art As Investment

Dear Friends,

My name is David Norden and I host the most visited websites about african Art on the Internet. I also run a few discussion groups on Yahoo!groups on the same subject, and participate at two or more international African Art Fairs each year.

What I noticed is that most collectors of African Art don't have a clue about how to recognise if an African Art piece is authentic or not.

What is even more amazing is that some collectors who are already in the field for tens of years have collections filled with contemporary Art works, and still live in the illusion they are building a strong collection of traditional authentic African Art.

They don't want to accept the idea that they could have some "fakes" in the collection, that the pieces they collect are only made with the intention to resell them, and where not made to be from use in any tribal context..

It even goes further when you see that some Universities in the US make exhibitions with all these fake pieces and gives explanation to the unknowing public to "educate" it. They just believe what the collector told them, and did not inquire by reputable institutions, like the Smithsonian, Fowler, Yale, and tens of others who already have curators with knowledge about authentic African Art. They give credit to an unknowing collectors who explains them with much enthousiasm what they want to share, and put themselves on discredit.

It is today impossible to build a collection with genuine African art having some age, if you only buy in Africa or from African runners, and don't have contacts with other African Art collectors, dealers, and museum curators of African Art from Around the World..

If you want to invest in African Art you will have to invest in education and buy your pieces from reliable sources, have many books on the subjcts, visit museum exhibitions and permanet collections, and travel to the Fairs and conventions.

You will find enough good pieces sometimes even at low prices if you get to know some dealers members of internatioal organisations, or participating in some vetted Fairs. There are also international auction houses where you can buy selected pieces. And on the internet there are also many international dealers participating in these fairs who have a site where you can see some of the pieces they have for sale.

Collecting African Art is something which is passionating, seen that they are hundreds of different tribes, and that you can also chooses to only collect some specific aspects of the African Art field. I know collectors who only collect one tribe or region, like Gabon or Lega. Or one type of objects like Ibedji dolls or headdle pulleys. The possibilities are infinite. Also a field that remains largely untapped today if you don't want to be confronted with the authenticity problem are the many expressions of contemporary African Art that are not just copiing the traditional African art.

There are today, thanks to the internet so much posssibilities to discover African Art and with the many discussion groups and hubs like this one you will learn to discover soul mindeds people that can help you to build a genuine collection.

David Norden

About David Norden:

David Norden, is a dealer and collector of African Art living in Belgium, he runs the sites african-antiques.com and african-arts.info and you can see some of the pieces he sells at buyafricanantiques.com , and he also has a very interesting newsletter you can subscribe to .

He learned African Art from his mother who already collected African Art in the 1960's-1970's at a moment African Art was not a fashionalble as it is today, and want to advise those who are willing to know African Antiques better.