Nigerian Artist Njideka Akunyili Artwork Set New Record Sold $1m In New York

                             

A new auction record was set for the Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby in New York last week when her art work “Drown” soared to sell for $1,092,500, over three times the high-estimate ($200,000-300,000), in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale. 

No fewer than eleven bidders competed for the work that eventually sold to an anonymous buyer on the telephone.
This was the second time in less than two months that the auction record for Njideka Akunyili Crosby has been broken at Sotheby’s. The previous auction record for the artist was $93,750, set by her “Untitled” work from 2011 at Sotheby’s New York in September 2016.
‘Drown’ is an intimate self-portrait of the artist with her husband, Justin, and demonstrates beautifully how the layers of Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s work reference the layers of her own identity.
In May next year Sotheby’s will launch its first dedicated sales of “African Modern and Contemporary Art” in London, led by Hannah O’Leary, Sotheby’s recently-appointed Head of Modern and Contemporary African Art.