Two main artwork festivals have been cancelled – with Brexit partly guilty

Two of London’s main summer season artwork festivals have been cancelled this 12 months, with organisers saying Brexit is partly guilty.

The cancellations of Masterpiece and Olympia have raised considerations concerning the menace Brexit poses to the UK’s standing as a significant world artwork market.

Currently, Britain’s market is second solely to the United States by quantity of gross sales. But since 2020, growing quantities of pink tape and the introduction of an import VAT charge of 5%, have made it significantly tougher to maneuver artwork between the UK and Europe.

This is having a noticeable impact. Organisers of Masterpiece, one of many festivals cancelled this summer season, advised Sky News that the variety of EU-based galleries making use of to take part this 12 months had dropped by 86% in comparison with 2018.

Gander & White is without doubt one of the world’s main wonderful artwork transport corporations. Operations director Victor Khureya mentioned: “Works of artwork from the EU to the UK now require customs clearances and fee of VAT.

“Works of art from the UK to the EU require payment of VAT in the destination country. There’s increased complex customs procedures that we now have to comply with. The business has definitely been affected.”

According to survey knowledge from the current Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2023, UK sellers have been the least optimistic globally, with many citing “concern about the difficult economic conditions that might lie ahead”.

But London nonetheless has a number of benefits as a world centre for the artwork market: world-class galleries, storied public sale homes, prestigious artwork faculties and universities, to call however just a few.

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Vicki Wonfor, managing director of main London public sale home Roseberys, mentioned: “We can’t forget over the last three years we’ve also had the global pandemic, and obviously, more recently the war in Ukraine and all of these things have actually had financial impacts on the European market and also the UK art market.

“So it is necessary to think about all of it as an entire, and we won’t pigeonhole it into being instantly associated to Brexit. There’s nonetheless a starvation and urge for food inside the London artwork market. We’re nonetheless a world artwork market capital right here in London.”

In the aftermath of Brexit and the pandemic, the worth of artwork and antiques imports into the UK collapsed by almost half.

But final 12 months, the numbers rebounded once more by 65%, and though they’re nonetheless beneath 2019 ranges, it suggests the drop might have been extra short-term than initially feared. Sales too, rose modestly final 12 months.

But a placing comparability from the Art Basel & UBS Report supplies meals for thought. Between 2013 and 2022, the worth of the UK artwork market fell by 7%. Over the identical interval, the US market, a significant competitor, rose by 46%.