Luanda, 22 August, 2015

Congolese collector Sindika Dokolo is launching a vast campaign to return works stolen in Africa during the colonial period.

To carry out this endeavor, the Sindika Dokolo Foundation in Louanda, Angola, has called upon a team of specialists to discover works that were pilfered during colonisation in private collections and auctions. Where applicable, the owner is asked to resell the work to the foundation at their purchase price or be sued for theft. In this regard, Sindika Dokolo told the New York Times: “There are works that disappeared from Africa and are now circulating on the world market based on obvious lies about how they got there.” This radical position has certainly stirred up opposition. Interviewed by Art Media Agency, Belgian tribal art dealer Pierre Loos expressed his reservations on the query, “Shouldn’t all the Picasso’s be in Spain? […] Returning to the logic of restitution is to open Pandora’s box. Those who profit are not art lovers, but those who seek to have money and power.” However, Sindika Dokolo does not appear to demand a return of heritage to its original culture when it evokes the violent conditions by which the African continent has seen its artistic production freely appropriated by the Europeans. Nonetheless, there are reservations on the aspect of the undemocratic approach of the collector, with André Magnin, curator of “Beauté Congo”, at Fondation Cartier, uttering doubts on his legitimacy to decide what’s best for an entire continent.

Born in 1972 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sindika Dokolo is a businessman, and the owner of the largest African contemporary art collection, with more than 5,000 works.