Africa

First look at David Adjaye's planned museum for Benin City

Ghanaian-British architect is working with the British Museum and Nigerian organisations to show “the most comprehensive display in the world of Benin Bronzes”

French Senate votes unanimously for restitution to Benin and Senegal in 'act of friendship and trust'

Senate approves bill to return 27 colonial-era artefacts from museum collections to Africa within one year

Ghana appoints experts to draw up 'radical' new plan for museums and monuments

Committee will advise on cultural initiatives in the country and research Ghanaian objects held in international collections

Africanews

Artist Amadou Sanogo plans Bamako arts centre to mentor young talent

Expected to open in 2022, Makoro will house studios for Malian artists under 30, workshops for school children and exhibitions

Portuguese judge orders seizure of all assets owned by African art collector Isabel dos Santos in the country

Move is intended to stall the sales of stakes in multi-million-Euro companies based in Portugal

Zambia claims Rhodesian Man, the 250,000-year-old fossilised skull at London’s Natural History Museum

Negotiations are ongoing, but the Foreign Office says releasing 1972 documents on the claim “would harm UK relations with Zambia”

Green energy company powers Madagascar's first contemporary art non-profit

Hakanto Contemporary, sponsored by the eco-friendly Filatex group, is directed by the artist Joël Andrianomearisoa

Marrakesh loses title of first African Capital of Culture after Moroccan government steps in

Rabat is given the accolade just a just a week before celebration events were scheduled to take place

Art marketanalysis

'You have the right to culture with a capital C': Africa's growing collecting class shifts focus to home

From Marrakech to Cape Town, the continent's growing fairs and auctions scene is catering to a burgeoning domestic buying base

Luanda Leaks: Isabel dos Santos—who owns vast African art collection—accused of making her $2.2bn fortune by exploiting Angola

Dos Santos and her husband Sindika Dokolo own around 3,000 works by artists including William Kentridge and Zanele Muholi

Africacomment

Why Africa’s future museums should forget Western models

The time is ripe for artists and curators to reconfigure what can actually be done within the walls of a museum

Mali's reputation for insecurity challenged by the 25th Bamako Encounters

This year's edition of the photography festival showed "there are many Africas", as 85 artists portrayed a multifaceted, self-aware continent

Angola freezes assets of billionaire and her art collector husband

Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman, is married to Sindika Dokolo who has been working for years on repatriating works to the African continent

How medical experts helped curators discover the hidden secrets of a Senufo helmet mask

Spectral CT scans enabled the Dallas Museum of Art to identify unknown elements in the West African piece

France promises to return 26 looted Benin artefacts by 2021 and opens talks on 'wider set of works'

But restitution depends on the adoption of a law covering these specific items, while Benin secures a location to house them

Togo opens ground-breaking arts centre in former colonial palace

Palais de Lomé is the west African country's first major contemporary art centre and is unique on the continent for being financed by the state

France returns a historic sword to Senegal

The gesture is intended as a symbol of France’s commitment to repatriating African heritage

Alfredo Jaar revisits Rwandan genocide 25 years after the atrocity

The Chilean artist’s harrowing project goes on show in the UK for the first time

One year after the Sarr-Savoy report, France has lost its momentum in the restitution debate

The report made international headlines, recommending the restitution of African artefacts in French museums, but the country has not returned a single item to Africa

Yoruba prince donates more than 1,000 works of art to establish university museum in Nigeria

Yemisi Shyllon hopes other Nigerian collectors will follow his example and help found teaching museums that promote art education

Why African women artists are bucking the market trend

The growing success of female African artists marks an exciting shift in the market

The travel books of Eugène Delacroix have now been translated into English

These notebooks reveal how the artist discovered the "real" Orient in North Africa and southern Spain and adjusted his paintings accordingly

Benin gets €20m loan for new museum to show restituted heritage

France’s president pledged to return 26 items seized in the 19th century by the French military

South African art fair gets reboot under a new owner

Johannesburg-based FNB Joburg fair has been bought by its former director Mandla Sibeko

Museums in the changing world order: Restitution to Africa reaches tipping point

In the second part of a new series, Adrian Ellis examines the issue of post-colonial restitution

David Adjaye to design Ghana’s first ever pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Artists on show will include John Akomfrah, El Anatsui and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

This is African art's Golden Age, but can 1-54 Marrakech help build a sustainable domestic clientele?

Western interest in contemporary works from the continent is at a high, but that can be a double-edged sword

Economic growth spurs Africa’s art market—but slowly

Fledgling local client base and rising international interest fuel Cape Town and Marrakech shows

Africanews

Zimbabwe makes Venice Biennale selections amid political turmoil

Cosmos Shiridzinomwa and Georgina Maxim are the first artists to be confirmed