This lecture, cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was recorded in Berlin by Prof. Bénédicte Savoy with the help of cameraman and editor Timur El Rafie.
Depending on the gestures and actors involved in the appropriation, the objects collected change in nature, meaning and value, particularly in monetary terms.
Major auction houses such as Webster in Great Britain and Umlauff in Germany have had a considerable influence on the sale of pieces from Africa and their inclusion in the catalogs of major European museums, although we must not overlook the role played by other channels - flea markets, second-hand shops, tobacconists frequented by sailors and the Hôtel Drouot - in the trade in these objects.
The dynamism of the African art market and the scale of the heritage extraction it generates in the sub-Saharan regions are giving rise to the production of a new type of art, designed to satisfy the tastes of the European public and specifically intended for export, in respect of which museums, very attached to the authenticity value of the works, are nevertheless displaying a relatively ambiguous position.
