Among the thousands of trucks backed up in Dover last month trying to get across the Channel, one was carrying a painting by Henri Matisse. A piece by the Argentine-born artist Lucio Fontana was also in the queue, along with tens of millions of dollars of other artworks.
The owners wanted to get their art back to the continent before the U.K. left the European Union’s single market.
Before Dec. 31, European artworks could, like all other goods, move freely between the EU and the U.K. with minimal restrictions and without cumbersome tax and customs procedures. At the end of the Brexit transition period, galleries and collectors in London had to decide whether to stick with the U.K. or ship their works into the EU before the deadline. Several decided the latter was a better bet.
The risk for art dealers is that they could be hit by import duties when bringing works of art into the EU in future, according to Chris Evans, a general manager at shipping firm Cadogan Tate. In an interview, he said that mid-sized galleries and dealers who sell regularly to buyers in Europe have been particularly affected.
His company moved about 500 pieces for one client that has shifted about two-thirds of its stock into the EU. Another moved a quarter of its collection -- about $5 million of artworks -- and a third had moved smaller amounts earlier in the year.
Quantifying the total amount of art that was shipped out of the U.K. before the turn of the year isn’t straightforward because of a lack of data in a market that prides itself on privacy and secrecy. But anecdotal evidence backs up Evans’s impression that mid-sized operators and niche pockets of the market have been most affected.
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