An art fund that aims to establish itself as the “pre-eminent” investment vehicle in Africa for African art was launched in Cape Town in March. The Scheryn Art Collectors Fund, which will invest in artists from Africa and its diaspora, has been set up by the South African investment manager Herman Steyn and the Chinese-born, South Africa-based businessman Dabing Chen.
It costs a minimum R500,000 (around $40,500) to buy into the fund and annual management charges are 2%. There is no time limit for investments, but Steyn says that those hoping for a quick return should look elsewh ere. “The time for the works to… [increase in value] is at least five years, probably closer to ten years,” he says. “But we do intend to generate returns for people. The price appreciation [for African art] still hasn’t happened, so we believe the opportunities are there.”
Steyn says that upcoming events will increase international interest in art from the continent. Those include this year’s Venice Biennale, which is being organised by an African curator for the first time (the Nigerian-born Okwui Enwezor) and the 2017 opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town, which will show the African art collection assembled by Jochen Zeitz, the former chairman of the sportswear company Puma. Steyn and his partner have provided initial funding of R20m ($1.6m) and hope to raise a total R500m ($40.5m).
They are now looking for other shareholders; last month they travelled to Art Basel Hong Kong and to mainland China to meet potential Chinese investors. Steyn says that the trustees of the Scheryn art fund will be advised by a board of art experts and they intend to buy the work of “well established artists who give you more reliable price appreciation; middle tier artists who we believe are going to emerge; and then some really new, young artists”.
Unusually, the fund also intends to support African museums. It has already made a donation of “several million rand” to the Zeitz museum for its endowment and Steyn says he intends to watch any acquisitions closely. “You ignore what they are buying at your peril,” he says, suggesting that the fund may seek to buy works by the same artists, which are likely to increase in value once part of the museum’s collection.
Strict regulation
Nonetheless, strict guidelines regulate the dealings between the Zeitz and donors such as Steyn and Dabing. For example, the museum “will not show work belonging to the fund”, according to Mark Coetzee, the executive director and chief curator of the museum, who says the donation is “one of the largest grants made from a private organisation to the visual arts in this country”. Instead, Steyn says he intends to display art fund acquisitions in temporary spaces in Cape Town, Nigeria and Kenya, for example.
When asked how he hoped to avoid the fate of numerous other art funds that have failed, Steyn says: “In the financial markets, you have to deal with things outside of your control. All you can offer people is extreme depth of research. The fact that we’re investing in art doesn’t mean it’s any more whimsical than buying shares.”
Dabing is the founder of the Chensia group of companies, which has interests in mining, jewellery and wine, and trades goods between South Africa and China. He has also set up cultural initiatives between the two countries. Meanwhile, Steyn is a director at Prescient, the only African investment fund that has a licence to invest in Chinese markets.