In twenty years, France has risen from 3% to 7% of the world art market. It alone weighs half of the European market. But by adopting an EU directive that increases VAT from 5.5% to 20%, France is the only one of the 27 member countries to shoot itself in the foot.
All was well, however. The art market in France is undergoing a renaissance: from 3% of the world market in 2001, it has risen to 7%. But this dynamism risks being undermined by a directive from
the EU, taken without impact study or consultation with galleries and auction houses, almost informed by chance when the text dates back to April 2022: the multiplication by almost 4 of the rate of
VAT – from 5.5 to 20% – imposed on dealers on their imports of works from countries outside the EU, as well as on living artists working in Europe when they sell their creations to professionals. In twenty years, France has risen from 3% to 7% of the world art market. It alone weighs half of the European market.
Repeated health crises, geopolitical tensions, war at the gates of Europe, galloping inflation, the world always seems to be sinking further into chaos. However, it will have escaped no one, the art market is doing very well.
So much so that the television reportage magazine Des Racines et des Ailes recently devoted an issue to this insolent success and to the heritage pool that certain French provinces still constituted today. Interviewed among others, our colleagues Antoine Tarantino, was able to demonstrate to viewers the importance of the role of independent expert, his knowledge, his research to find, reconstruct the history of an object from elements
disparate; the importance of the role of independent expert to be able to situate this object in time, date it, place it in an artistic trend, estimate it… In a word, value it.