In recent years, African art has experienced an incredible global surge in recognition and value. Once marginalized and often misunderstood by Western collectors and institutions, African art is now enjoying unprecedented demand among international galleries, auction houses, fairs, museums, and cultural institutions.

2022 has just come to an end and we can’t help but analyze a trend of the big auction houses, such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips, from the past year. That trend is to hold auctions that present emerging young artists, aged between 25 and 35, alongside the most relevant and valued artists of the 20th and 21st century. The prices of such masters keep going up, and the choice to place up and coming and emerging artists alongside them seems to be a calculated move intend