Many products that come into the U.S. have duties, a tax automatically placed on them. Specific items might have tariffs. Until now no original works of art or antiques over 100 years old have had either in the U.S. Needless to say the art world is suddenly very nervous.
A few weeks ago, we read in our local paper, The New Mexican, that the price of avocados, which come from Mexico, would go up if tariffs were imposed and as a result guacamole, a staple in this part of the world, would become much more expensive… as I am writing I see we will have a one month reprieve. Which reminds me of the Yiddish expression, “ess, ess mein kindt” (eat, eat my child)! It is a bad joke in a way, but I had not thought before of how it would affect the art world.
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Current Customs Forms |
The threatened tariffs are not just on Mexico but on Canada and China as well. Think of the artists who have markets in the States and the effect this will have on galleries and collectors. I am not speaking of the artists that bring huge prices but the lesser known who live, like most, from small amounts they can make through galleries and at art fairs. Will the galleries even bother to go through the trouble and paperwork added to the import of this material.
Every summer Santa Fe hosts an Indian Market, the most important of the Native American fairs of note in the country. In fact, when we started collecting Native American Art friends on the Hopi Reservation told us that if we wanted to collect Indian art we had to go to Indian Market in Santa Fe. Although the Market was founded in 1922 for tribes of the Southwest it has broadened its scope over the years to include indigenous artists from other parts of the United States, and recently reached across the border. Natassja Santistevan proudly wrote last summer in an article for TABLE New Mexico about “a cohort of passionate artists from Northen Canada” coming as “2024 Santa Fe Indian Market Makes History with Canadian Artists”. She called it “a celebration of Northern Canadian indigenous culture”. The new tariff would mean more than additional paperwork prices of the art sold would be 25% more expensive. Far less Canadian art would be sold and why would these artist bother to come. This does not mean that Native Americans would sell more it would mean that there would not be an expanded attraction to draw new visitors.
Georgina Adam in an article in Apollo Magazine writes that tariffs on China at 10% will be added to the 7.5% tariff that already exists. She also points out that the President has also threatened tariffs on Europe. Add that to the commissions you already paid to the auction houses on that continent. Galleries are usually small operations and they already must cope with customs forms and certificates of authenticity. Much of this can be done by a customs broker but the paperwork starts at the gallery.
In an article in Art News, Harrison Jacobs writes on the nervousness on the part of galleries in Mexico. In the past Mexican dealers have come to the U.S. fairs with their art under temporary admission. This means that duties and taxes apply only to what has been sold and are paid by either the seller or the buyer. So far there are no new regulations, but no one knows what to expect.
As we already know from the stock market no one thrives under a curtain of uncertainty.