Meet the Specialist

What do you do at Bonhams?

I am the Director of Modern & Contemporary African Art at Bonhams in London where we hold two auctions per year, as well as an annual auction in New York, with additional online auctions offered throughout the year. The next Modern & Contemporary African Art sale takes place on 17 March 2021 in London.

What inspired you to go into the art world? 

I have always had a fascination with auctions and their wonderfully capricious nature. A few years before I started my career, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers had reached a seemingly impossible price of $40 million and I was drawn to this world where oil paint, canvas and a few lathes of wood could be transformed into millions of pounds - it seemed an almost mystical process. I was entranced by this alchemy and I still have a sense of wonder when the bidding on work soars above the estimated price. As I have found out, the maxim that “valuation is an art, not a science” is a literal truth in the Art world.

What was your first job? 

I started as a porter at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, London during the 1990s. I remember very well the first sale I helped with – it was dedicated to Staffordshire Pottery Figures - though I have to admit, it’s not a market I still follow.

 Name one of your triumphs.

I’d like to name two. The sale of Arab Priest by Irma Stern, which sold for £3.1 million in 2011, set a world record for a Modern African painting that still stands. That was a remarkable milestone equalled by Ben Enwonwu’s Tutu, selling for £1.2 million in 2018. Not only did this establish the current world record for a Modern Nigerian painting, but it also created huge interest around the world. The painting was the artist’s masterpiece and of great symbolic significance in Nigeria. It had been considered lost, so it was wonderful to be involved in its rediscovery.

What has changed in the business since you first started? 

We cannot ignore the total revolution in the way we communicate with clients in this digital age and how it has eased what we do. When I started, we had to send polaroid shots of upcoming works to bidders by post. As for the market, there has been a concentration of wealth at the highest end of collecting ambition which means that trophy lots command a lot of attention and continue to hugely out-perform the rest of the market. We have also seen the emergence and rise of African collectors as a buying force. This was unheard of 15 years ago, now they are major players in the market.

What is your strength as a specialist? 

Backing my judgement and being prepared to place a very high estimate on a work. If you think it is worth a record price, in my view you have to say that. Being upfront and open builds trust.

What’s exciting you about your next sale?

We have two exceptional works by Irma Stern at a combined estimate of £1.4 – 2 million including the stunning Arab with Dagger, painted in 1945, one of several key works that Stern executed of members of Zanzibar’s Arab community. We also have an important work by Thomas Baines called The Eastern Cataracts of the Victoria Falls which like so many of his paintings had been considered lost. It’s a mesmerizing depiction of a double rainbow over the Falls from a very unusual angle – it gives you vertigo just to look at it!

Do you have a hidden talent? 

A hidden ambition perhaps; I have always wanted to keep bees.

Which work of art has changed your life? 

The one work that changed my career path was Gerard Sekoto's Self Portrait which we sold at Bonhams for £120,000 in 2006. It was the sale of this work that convinced me to start the series of auctions of Modern African Art in London. These were unique, unprecedented and fortunately a great success and led to the sales we have now.
The painting’s market value today is well over £1 million but to me it’s incalculable, for had it not been for this portrait, I would probably not be doing what I do now.

Giles Peppiatt is the Director of Modern & Contemporary African Art at Bonhams in London. He can be reached at giles.peppiatt@bonhams.com