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African art is not for everyone.
African art, chances are you, either love it or dislike it.
Igalaland is a website celebrating African art of all types, especially African art that has been used culturally throughout Africa but primarily Nigeria. The website provides the opportunity for a collector to acquire African art pieces that a true lover of African art would otherwise not have the capability to collect at reasonable prices. A number of African art books have stated that 90-percent of all wood African art is created in West Africa, and that 90-percent of the wood art is created in Nigeria.
Igalaland personnel are collectors and not scholars of African art. We have been collecting for over thirty years, but we continue to learn the tradecraft of collecting African art.
Some African art dealers and scholars, especially in face book groups believe that unless a piece of African art is made before 1940 or 1950, the piece has minimal value, or is considered a copy or fantasy art. And the general opinion is that African art pieces have even less value if they do not have “provenance”. Provenance for major African art dealers, primarily from the Colonizer countries is essential to the modern-day African art market with pieces constantly being sold back and forth to generate value based on provenance, which we call ownership. Provenance, credibility; documentation of being passed down from one person to another every time the piece changes hands is what it is all about to increase pricing and value of pieces. The more visibility the person has that owns the piece, such as a well-known actor or high-level politician or wealthy person to include famous artists, increases the value of the piece being collected. We are aware our provenance definition is not textbook but, in a nutshell, simple to understand.
All over Africa there are still cultural festivities that continue every year that are hundreds of years old. Many of these festivals use cultural objects representing various Africa secret societies or sending social messages which are pieces of original African art, not copies. The objects can be masks, statues, bronze or metal objects and contemporary carvings that are used during various festivals, funerals, or rituals. Upon conclusion of the events, these pieces used or danced are taken back to their villages and placed into shrines for storage and worship. .
Many times, some of the pieces will be sold by the village, or owners of a particular piece, or pieces. Igalaland members travel throughout Africa searching for original African art to collect. The primary focus is on West African art to collect and is managed by members of the various professional associations involved with the marketing of African art.
Igalaland, therefore, brings to the table pieces of African art in most cases with provenance ranging from where the piece was collected, who may have initially collected the piece, to the person, and our agent that acquired the piece for Igalaland to the date the museum certificate is issued for export. Igalaland will provide copies of all documentation and a certificate of originality for all pieces that have a known provenance to the collector for provenance verification.
Igalaland provides the copies of documents for those that would, otherwise, not be able to collect original African art providing provenance so the piece can be added to one’s portfolio for generational wealth purposes as well. If we doubt a piece, our website will list that we believe it is a copy or is in the style of a certain cultural ethnic group.
The pieces Igalaland focuses on are pieces which you may observe being danced on Facebook videos at various festivals including funerals today. Igalaland pieces are like collecting coins but are much more attractive since they can be displayed and increase in value as time marches on and are passed down from father to son or daughter to increase generational wealth.
Igalaland African art pieces are focused on Generation Z. Our pieces, if collected now there is no doubt, will increase in value with the years to come.
Igalaland pieces will supplement Generational Z retirement wealth since the amount of original African art is diminishing and the baseline provenance can only increase the value of the pieces the longer, they are held in their collections.