Yaëlle Biro

Yaëlle Biro is an art historian specialising in African art. She joined INHA in October 2024 as scientific coordinator for the field of collection history, history of artistic and cultural institutions, and art economics, with a view to developing projects related to the art market and provenance issues. Her research focuses on the history of African collections in Europe, the United States, and Africa, approached from different angles: collecting practices during the colonial period, merchant networks, the circulation of works and materials, as well as materiality, photography, the historiography of African arts, the constitution of knowledge and taste, and museum curation.

Project 

Title: African art during the Second World War: looting, destruction, displacement

The fate of African artworks during World War II is an overlooked field of inquiry and a subject that requires a close reading of the archives, both between the lines and against the grain. Bringing together researchers, artists and knowledge holders, this international project will unfold through a range of public events (study days, seminars, workshops in Africa, colloquium) in order to investigate and reveal the impact of the war on African arts, their displacement, their erasure, and their repositioning—both in Africa and in Europe. Combining research and creation, the project's objectives relate to the history of collecting, the identification of key market players, and the analysis of African objects’ specific status in the context of racist theories of fascism. It is about making visible the silences and absences related to this period and these geographies.

Institution: INHA

Select publications 

• Echoes, Ripples, Wake : Casting Art and Flesh. Berlin: De Gruyter,  Traces. Public History and Cultural Heritage Series (à paraître en 2026, Yaëlle Biro et Noémie Etienne éds). 

• Les arts africains : histoire et dynamique. Yaëlle Biro et Constantine Petridis éds. Paris : Citadelles et Mazenod, collection L’Art et les grandes civilisations.

• Surréalisme - Zones de Contact : L'Afrique, L'Océanie, l'Amérique du Nord comme lieux de dialogue et de friction. Yaëlle Biro et Nicolas Rolland. (Editions H+R)

• « Introduction: Le pouvoir créatif du continent africain », Biro and Petridis, dans Les arts africains: Histoire et dynamique. Yaëlle Biro et Constantine Petridis Eds. Paris: Citadelles et Mazenod, collection L’Art et les grandes civilisations, pp. 18-45.