Nigeria Content Online

The hammer of
auctioneer Yvonne Emordi will fall on April 24 to signify the
commencement of the ‘Golden Jubilee Art Auction,’ organised by Terra
Kulture. About 140 works will go under the hammer at the event
supported by Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and Nimbus 2000.

The auction,
earlier scheduled to hold at Terra Kulture’s Tiamiyu Savage, Victoria
Island premises in February, was postponed due to lack of sponsorship.
It viewing opened Tuesday April 20, culminating in the auction proper
on Saturday April 24.

Terra Kulture held
its first auction in December 2008, to sell works from the art
exhibition organised to coincide with the Commonwealth Head of
Government Meeting (CHOGM). This second auction, according to Managing
Director of the centre, Bolanle Austen-Peters, is the organisation’s
way of ushering in Nigeria’s 50th Anniversary celebration. “This is our
way of supporting the art industry and the auction is one vehicle for
pushing art forward,” she said.

About 200 works
will be available for public viewing; these were sourced from private
collections and the artists themselves. The collection includes works
from masters like Bruce Onobrakpeya, Abayomi Barber, El Anatsui, Jimoh
Braimoh and the late Ben Osawe. There is a wide selection, including
works by younger contemporary artists including Victor Ehikhamenor, Rom
Isichei, Ini Brown and Edosa Oguigo.

Austen Peters
assured that all exhibits on offer are authentic artworks. She
disclosed that the organisers got assistance from artists, people from
the rural areas where the works were discovered and experts who could
date the mostly bronze artefacts. The artefacts include a jewellery box
(Ekpoki), a Benin Warrior Head, an Ife Head and a sculpture titled ‘The
Portuguese Warrior Horse Rider’.

Programme director
at Terra Kulture, Temitope Sanya, said, “We are trying to create a
storyline and the yesteryears of art in Nigeria,” while disclosing the
criteria for selecting the works.

Austen Peters also
explained the rationale for the auction. She said the organisers
believe auctioning the works will benefit the artists more as they will
go to the highest bidder and also provide more excitement for art
collectors. She did not hide her disappointment that most of the
auctions held for Nigerian works are not organised by Nigerians. She
said this was why Terra Kulture felt a yearly auction was necessary.

The director also
disclosed how they would strike a balance between exhibitions and
auctions so that artists do not withhold their works hoping to make
more money at the auctions. Austen Peters noted that it is works from
the masters that sell more and with auctions being held once in a
while, it would not make sense for artists to toe that line.

“We have works you won’t see in galleries. There are works from
Victor Uwaifo and Jimoh Braimoh that won’t be found in any gallery,”
Austen Peters said while reiterating the uniqueness of the auction. She
also hopes that the auction will produce bids that will surpass that of
Onobrakpeya’s ‘Greater Nigeria’ or even Ben Enwonwu’s ‘Dancing Child’.
Onobrakpeya’s work went for nine million naira at last year’s Art House
Auction while Enwonwu’s ‘Dancing Boy’ sold at over N13 million at the
Bonhams Auction held recently in New York.