European Taxes & Breaucracy Driving £ 8 Billion Art Market to U.S.
Earl Evleth
Dans l'article <p9qg8u4b7f7r4mflh...@4ax.com>, El Castor
<justusc...@here.com> a écrit :
> Red tape and taxes cost Europe lead in art market
> By Will Bennett in Maastricht
> (Filed: 08/03/2002)
>
> EUROPE'S £8 billion-a-year art market has lost its supremacy to the
> United States because of high taxes and stifling European Union
> bureaucracy, according to a report published yesterday.
I follow the art market in the Internationl Herald since
they have a good journalist-art critic. Nothing in this article
is terribly new in any area, globalization means that individual
countries can not run their business in as insular fashion as they
wish. Note that the current steel problem in the USA is a result
of this kind of economic insularism.
The problem of taxes and controls exists in various markets.
The French art market years ago was disturbed by the proposition
of the incoming socialist Government (1981, I have a long memory)
to tax wealth. Total wealth was based on investments, real estate, personal
property
and initially art holdings. The problem with art holdings is that it is
an unperforming asset, produces no income to pay the tax with.
Those who knew the market warned the government that such a wealth
tax would lead to clandestine exportation of a cultural assets.
One could theoretically have on Renoir, passed down through the family
(perhaps not even declared for death tax purposes!), worth 10 million
dollars. Since the wealth tax would be 1-2% of the value of the time,
where is one going to find yearly, the 100,000 dollar to pay the tax? The
solution might be to not declare it or simply sneak the painting ouf of the
country and sell it.
So the Government backed off, art holdings and antiques over 100 years old
were not taxable. At pragmatic decision. It even possible stimulated
the art and antique markets!
Likewise, the incoming Government wanted to tax expensive boats. This led
to boats being transfered out of French ports to Italian, and a subsequent
loss of business activity to those who sevice the boats in French ports.
Predictably, the French backed off and in fact the socialists turn around
favoring boat investment and exports, giving tax preference status to
those who invested in boats in the Caribbean for rental purposes.
As many know, French sail boat construction is cooking along, we ourselves
rent boats in the Caribbean (our daughter is a skipper) periodically.
So Governments do learn which side of the bread to butter. Revision of
the art market in Paris is in course, but the London and
New York markets have long been challenging it. This is not news.
I think the 8 billion dollar thing grabbed you.
Nor have I seen any particular mention of the tax problem, something
what would attract an American reader more than the art itself!
And of course, Europe is where a good portion of the art of the last
several thousand years has been produced. Wbo has bought this in
the past is another question. In our area of Paris, art and antique
(true antiques) abound, like real estate offices, we are oversupplied
with people who must be making money at it, taxes and all. I have
met many Americans here to buy antiques and ship them back to
the USA, since the prices here can look cheap at times compared
to what the Bobos of NY City have to pay locally. This country
seems to have an unlimited supply of stuff to sell the Americans,
some of it really having value, later. Impressionism was popular with few
buyers in France at the time and a lot of good paintings ended up in Russia
and the USA even before taxes were invented. People actually use to buy
art because they liked it, without thinking it was a "collectable" or what
is was worth.
I am glad your interests have now turn to art, Jeff, perhaps you`ll
stop thinking about taxes and money all the time.
Earl