Robert Devereux Delivers His African Art Assortment to Raise Funds for Charities

Text dimension

British art patron and philanthropist
Robert Devereux
will give a variety of modern day African artwork, well worth £2 million (US$2/4 million), in October at Christie’s London, with parts of the proceeds benefiting various arts and environmental charities.

Devereux, 67, a former companion in the Virgin Team and spouse of Vanessa Branson, has been collecting present-day artwork from Africa and the diaspora considering that the early 2000s. In 2010, he offered his selection of fashionable British artwork for £4 million to established up the African Arts Rely on, a charity that supports modern visible art companies in Africa.

His African art selection, which he suggests is a “work in progress,” is named the
Sina Jina
Collection right after his house on the island of Lamu, Kenya. Sina Jina suggests “a location with no name” in Swahili.

A variety of 70 pieces—including sculpture, paintings, and photographs—from the Sina Jina Collection will be offered at Christie’s London on Oct. 13, as component of the auction house’s Frieze 7 days systems. 

This sale, which Christie’s says is “the major single owner sale of contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora,” is expected to fetch in the location of £2 million, with portion of the proceeds going to support arts and environmental charities. 

“Proceeds from this auction will reward a quantity of charities that are shut to my coronary heart, which includes The African Arts Have confidence in that I established,” Devereux stated in a statement by Christie’s.

Other nonprofits that will get donations contain The Africa Center, a London-primarily based platform to showcase up to date African artwork Bët-bi, a new up to date artwork museum in Senegal Gasworks & Triangle Community, a London-based up to date visible art corporation and The Lamu Environmental Basis, which is committed to environmental conservation, especially in the preservation of maritime lifestyle.

Artists represented in the sale incorporate El Anatsui,
Ibrahim El-Salahi,

Nicholas Hlobo,

William Kentridge,

Marcia Kure,

Elias Sime,
and
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,
between many others.

Devereux initially encountered Yiadom-Boakye’s operate in the course of the artist’s residency at Gasworks & Triangle Community, in 2007. 4 of her operates will be offered in this sale, each and every a person depicting a Black protagonist imagined by the British artist to “deliberately steer clear of getting attributable to a particular moment in background,” Christie’s reported.

The most useful painting in this team is Highpower, 2008, which carries a presale estimate amongst £600,000 and £800,000.

Highlights of the 70-piece selection will be on public exhibition at Christie’s Paris in September and in London from Oct. 6-13.