Bonhams' Modern and Contemporary African Art sale in London closed at £3,347,050, with a towering bronze by Ben Enwonwu taking the evening's highest price. The 2.2-metre gilt-bronze Anyanwu changed hands for £602,100, a new auction high for the Nigerian artist's sculptural work. Bonhams said the piece was appearing at public auction for the first time, a debut that helped drive competition for a work of exceptional scale and rarity.

Anyanwu draws on the Igbo earth goddess Ani, and its size and finish make it one of the most ambitious sculptures of Enwonwu's career. The artist, who lived from 1917 to 1994, is widely regarded as a founding figure of modern Nigerian art, combining West African visual traditions with the academic training he received in Britain. Only two other versions of the sculpture are known, according to Bonhams, one of which belongs to the National Museum in Lagos, leaving the London example as a rare chance for collectors to acquire the composition.

The sale produced seven artist records in total, underlining the depth of bidding beyond the headline lot. Yusuf Grillo's One Man Band reached £461,300, Uzo Egonu's Will Knowledge Safeguard Freedom I made £198,900, and Tanzanian painter Sam Joseph Ntiro's At the Pool set a new mark at £51,700. A still life by South African modernist Irma Stern added £90,100, extending the geographic reach of the results from Nigeria and Tanzania to South Africa.

Bonhams' group head of fine art in the UK, Giles Peppiatt, pointed to the records as evidence of lasting institutional and collector interest in museum-grade African modernism. The results also carry a note of caution: single-lot records reflect the rarity, condition and history of individual works rather than a uniform rise across the whole field. For the African art market, the sale's real signal may be narrower but more durable — that major, well-documented works by the region's modern pioneers continue to find determined buyers when they surface.