LEADSTORY
His looks belie his age . Chief Newton Jibunoh , born January 1,1938 , soon to be octogenarian , is known mostly as the explorer who crossed the world ’ s largest desert alone- twice . But he ’ s this and more . In 1986 , he made history when he founded Nigeria ’ s first private museum - Didi Museum . Today , he speaks authoritatively about the value of African ancient and contemporary art as one of Nigeria ’ s most renowned art connoisseurs .
Why have you invested so much in the arts ? My involvement in the arts started about 50 years ago . And it came as a combination of so many things . My expeditions as you may have known , I started expeditions in the 60s . and once you go on expeditions , there becomes the need for you to preserve certain elements of things you come across that will help you tell your story when the time comes because as you may have known , before the written history , art was used to record the various developments over time . And that
• Tapfuma Gutsa : Genesis
Art is priceless
- Newton Jibunoh
is the case especially here in Africa . Our history that goes back thousands of years was recorded in the arts . You ’ d see it in Igbo Ukwu , you ’ d see it in Ife , in Benin , and in the Nok cultures . These are artworks that tell stories about our civilisation , about our art , about our education and even the law that we practice , the religion ... All these things were recorded in the art . And I stumbled into all these during my various expeditions and that was how the need to preserve the art came to be .
invests . ng - MARCH / APRIL 2017
Secondly , in the 70s I was building an extension to a hotel in Ikoyi . Then , it was soon after the law , the decree that was promulgated by the military , controlling the export of certain artefacts . The National Museum started raiding some of the art shops and it happened that there was an art shop at the hotel where I was working and the owner of the shop brought some works to hide in my portakabin office to avoid being raided and losing some of those artworks . I started talking to him . I asked him , who are you going to sell those works to ? Don ’ t you see that these are treasures ? These are works that tell our story and you sell it to people that will take it out of Nigeria . I also stumbled on the fact that Nigeria happened to be the third largest owner of Nigerian works . You have the Germans , the British , and then Nigeria . That pained me , and I asked myself why I was going be hiding works that I know had been contributing to other countries owning more of Nigerian works . Thirdly , I also read that Picasso said he was greatly influenced by the African art , mainly the Nigerian art . So when you put all these things together , you come to find out that we have some uniqueness in the art especially those ones that were produced to record the various developments in the country . And that inspired me to be part of that preservation ; not just to preserve but to educate , to let Nigerians and the rest of the world know that we have our hands some of the best art you can find in the world . It was not just collecting them , it was also the fact that one needed to showcase and let people know how rich we are , not just in Nigeria but in the whole of Africa as far as the arts and art production is concerned . So those were the issues .
There are a few factors , you have informed me , that are militating against the keeping of African art and antiquities like preservation and religiousity . How does the art collector deal with this ? If we are to begin to see art as an investment , whatever asset you own , be it real estate , be it even stocks of blue chip companies , if you don ’ t look after it , after a while there ’ s bound to be depreciation in the value of that asset . And that ’ s where the problem lies for those that have collected . If you go to the British Museum today , or the German Museum , two countries that own the most works that originated from Nigeria , if you go their various museums and galleries , you will see how well protected and how nicely preserved their works are . Your archives
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