"It's not only that they are, in terms of competitiveness, in a worse position than their European colleagues; it is the situation that other areas of contemporary culture have reduced taxes. What's happening is that contemporary art is understood only as an elite product, when it's much more than that."
"In the short term, I'm concerned about how this will affect business for Spanish galleries, medium term, how that will affect visibility of Spanish artists abroad. And third, what society are we if we can't understand the relevance of contemporary art as a trigger for bigger, more important questions?"
Arco Madrid, Spain's largest commercial art fair, holds its 45th edition in March with 206 galleries from 36 countries at Madrid's Ifema convention centre. The fair occurs during significant protests by Spanish galleries against the country's 21% VAT on art purchases—the highest in Europe, roughly four times higher than neighboring Portugal, France, and Italy. Fair director Maribel López, a former dealer, expresses support for Spanish galleries and their concerns. She emphasizes that high VAT rates disadvantage Spanish galleries competitively and misrepresent contemporary art as an elite product rather than a cultural trigger for broader societal questions. Over one-third of exhibiting galleries are Spanish, with similar representation from Latin American countries.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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