Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
Art Collecting in Postcolonial Nigeria and the Politics of Repatriation
Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi
(University of Nigeria, Nsukka)
In spite of the rhetoric of restitution, African art is still being collected in Europe and America. This paper seeks to discuss the inherent irony in the situation and how it is likely to affect the future of African heritage, with Nigeria as example
Paper long abstract:
Although there are a few pockets of publications dealing peripherally with art collection in Nigeria, the immense contributions of art collectors to the development of art and nation building are yet to be captured fully by scholars. In response to this lacuna, this research traces the history of art collecting in Nigeria from the immediate postindependence era and its impact on the general history of art, the creative industries and on socio-economic development in the country in the country in the postcolonial years (1962-2022). Relying on Obumselu’s theory that the history of art is written not in history books but on bank ledgers and on Mazrui’s theory of counter penetration, the research also takes a hard look at the rising interest in collecting Nigerian/African art in Europe and its paradoxical impact on art and art history in Nigeria in light of the new-fangled harangue on repatriation.