For Many Black Museums, It’s “Buy-Buy History”
When Charles L. Blockson heard in November that the Christie’s
auction house in New York had provoked an angry telephone protest by
callers who were irate over a scheduled auction of American slavery
documents, it came as little surprise to him that auction company
officials had not considered the vehement public opposition to such a
sale.
According to Blockson, who is curator of the Charles L. Blockson
Afro-American Collection at Temple University, the auction of documents
relating to slavery merely represented business as usual to the
community of traders and collectors of historical artifacts. Over the
past four decades, he has watched the trade in what is known as
Afro-Americana become big business.
“There are more than 50,000 collectors of [B]lack memorabilia in the
United States, many of whom started it as a hobby but now view their
finds as money-making ventures,” according to USA Today.
According to experts Ralph and Terry Kovels, authors of Kovels’
Antiques and Collectables Price List 1998, a third of all Americans are
active memorabilia collectors.
Black museum professionals and collectors, such as Blockson, say
interest in Black history artifacts and memorabilia is at an all-time
high. The Christie’s incident represents just a small part of a larger
picture. Among historical artifacts and documents relating to African
American history, slavery- related items are valued most highly by
collectors and dealers.
Blockson, who has been collecting rare books and documents since the
1940s, says that profit- seeking private dealers and collectors harbor
very little sensitivity and sentiment about the buying and selling of
artifacts relating to slavery. They are motivated purely by the
marketplace.
