When Sotheby's concluded its third online-only bi-annual Modern & Contemporary African Art auction, the net sales of the arts auctioned off totalled £2.7 million ($3.7 million), exceeding the estimated pre-sales figures by over 40%.

The auction house saw an upsurge of bids placed by collectors based in Africa, an indicator of a fascinating shift in the global African art market, with records set both for more established, as well as contemporary artists.

This is partly because the popularity of online-only sales, necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, has attracted mobile and tech savvy younger African collectors who are more comfortable bidding and buying remotely than traditional collectors.

"This category is one that has seen a continued rise in sales even during the pandemic,” says Hannah O’Leary, the head of Modern and Contemporary African Art at Sotheby’s. “From 2017-2019, we had a 30-50% growth in sales. The trajectory was lower last year given the pandemic, but was still a positive growth even as general auction sales went down across other departments."

Since the Modern and Contemporary African Art auction category was created by Sotheby's four years ago, it has achieved over 80 record-breaking sales. This is the strongest indication yet that the global art market is raring towards increasing interest in contemporary African art and artists.

According to data from Sotheby's proving the maturity of African collectors' purchasing power in today's art market, during this period, around 70% of sales had been to African collectors, while a third of the bidders have originated from North America and Europe, with 10% from Latin America and Asia.

This past auction had some exciting record-making sales for pieces by both renowned African artists and newcomers. Nigeria's Ben Enwonwu's bronze sculpture, Atlas, which set a new world record for a sculpture by the artist in its first appearance at auction, sold for £378,000 ($519,826). Enwonwu's work on paper, a watercolor piece from his African Dances series also went for £189,000 ($259,913).

Among the six other record sales made at the auction were: an oil and acrylic canvas painting, Mute Lives, by Cameroonian artist Adjani Okpu-Egbe; an acrylic canvas painting, A Boy with a Yellow Jerrycan, by Ethiopian artist Nirit Takele; a portrait by Sengalese artist Iba N’Diaye titled Portrait d'Anna; and Folly, a painting by Nigerian artist Demas N. Nwoko, which was a well celebrated painting in Nigeria in the 1960s before it mysteriously disappeared from public, only to be found in a modest home in South London. This painting was sold at the auction at triple its estimate for £226,800 (311,895).

Despite the pandemic and the consequent closing of physical stores, contemporary African art is still able to draw in so much value and for O'Leary, this is a signifier of the market viability of African art and the relevance of African collectors to the global art market value chain.

Many art market online alternatives have sprung up to link up the vast collection of contemporary and modern African art being created by artists from the continent who might not have the resources to have their art on big auction houses like Sotheby's to collectors around the world. One of such online art marketplace for African art is Aworanka, where upcoming and legendary African artists have their works up for sale at equitable prices.