As part of contribution to the growth of art in Nigeria, Nero Asibelua Foundation has donated some copies of a book titled Collecting Art..a handbook to institutions offering art in Nigeria. The book authored by Prof Fabian Ajogwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Jess Castellote, a Spanish national who has been working in Nigeria since 1984 was donated at Quintessence Art Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos. Among the recipients of the book were Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Yaba College of Technology and University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to chairman of the foundation, Mr Nero Asibelua the book is a must have for Nigerian art practitioners as well as art collectors for the understanding and improvement of art business, preservation among others in the 21st century. “The donation of this book is about donating knowledge to art Institutions in Nigeria in order to improve the knowledge and business of art,” he said.
He recalled his ignorance in the business of art year’s back when he sold a Ben Enwonwu’s art piece his father left for him at a very cheap price to an art collector who resold at a triple price of he sold to him.
“I sold in ignorance because I didn’t know better then. It is very unfortunate in this time that most people are not educated enough. They are not taking the opportunity to know the issues of art. It is not in the art itself but it is in the kind of people that produces it. In art, I believe strongly it is posterity that counts. When you have a piece of art and you are diligent about it and you do it properly it will out leaves you. I have visited most art museums in the world and art is history of life,” he added.
Sharing her experience on art collecting, Prof Ebun Clark, who was the special guest of honour narrated when she started collecting art. “It was delightful just to buy an art piece, My husband and I bought art for the love of it. Then there was no secondary market. The artist would bring them to us to buy. The first art piece we bought was in 1965 and it’s still hanging on the wall, it’s titled The Prince When we deliberated on the amount we bought a piece whether it was 30pounds or 20, it was Baba Bruce who brought the painting to us and the interesting part is that he documented every piece he sold to us. We must not forget the role of Mbari Club in Ibadan, which was a journal for black art to the world.
Dr Frank Ugiomoh of Department of Fine Art, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, described investment in art as an investment in knowledge.
The authors who gave brief hint about the book said that it is to educate artists about how to do art business in 21st, how to protect works as well as help broaden their minds. They added that artists should take their works seriously because if they do not take care of their works someone else will take advantage of it. Prof Fabian said, “the book is to imbibe knowledge to everyone, artist, collectors, gallery owners and essentially anyone who is connected to the art to understand the intricacies of the proprietary right for artist, the intellectual property , guiding them properly to optimize the wealth that they create, to know how to preserve art work, how to sell it, insurance issues, sell and resell and what are the rights of the artist in relation to if perhaps you bought a piece of art can someone go and strip it and make T-shirt out of it and make a screen saver out of it?, what are the sub-sectors of those rights?, We also look at how to preserve art, how to pass art works from one generation to another, inheritance tax issues and e’s a whole lot”. However, the guests were entertained with soulful jazz melodies by Asibelua Foundation band.