Uhe European directive on VAT, with serious consequences for the French artistic scene, was unanimously adopted by European Council of twenty-seven Member States, 5 April 2022. Although it does not abolish the special VAT regime for works of art, it amounts to making it de facto inapplicable, except to practically quadruple the VAT of artists and that which weighs on the importation of non-Community works.
Culture contributes to making our country, by birth or adoption, and in any case from the heart, a light in the world. Culture needs to circulate, to be shared in order to shine in France, in Europe and in the world. At a time when all the great powers are implementing powerful strategies of cultural soft power, how is it that Europe and our country, the one that invented the cultural exception, are giving up their wealth?
We, artists want by this text to raise the alarm following the information revealed by the press in recent days, concerning a European directive which could quadruple the rate of VAT on works imported or sold in the EU. Some will no doubt be surprised to see artists take up the pen on the occasion of such a measure. It is because this directive, if it is transcribed as such into French law, is a threat to the French artistic scene.
Multiple and immediate consequences
The echoes went so far as to write that “France is preparing to scuttle its art market”. It is indeed a whole ecosystem which is in danger, in which the institutions, the market and we, the artists, participate. For what ? In a globalized system where our works are sold at the same price in Paris, Brussels, London, Hong Kong or New York, the multiplication of this VAT by four would discourage any purchase of works in France, and thereby their circulation and ultimately their presence in Europe and France.
The consequences would be multiple and immediate. If this directive is transcribed as is, the works, ours as well as those of our heritage, will be sold elsewhere and will no longer return to France. The application of this directive will therefore lead to a drying up of heritage and a reduction in the cultural offer, at a time when Paris had regained its importance on the international art market and the very first place in Europe.
Everything contributes to this in an unprecedented way in recent years: the dynamism of museums, galleries, auction houses, the enthusiasm of French and foreign collectors and artists from all walks of life who have been established for a long time or attracted by this beautiful rediscovered vitality. This directive, which is technical and accounting only in appearance, will alter and dry up creation and heritage.
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