There was enormous expectation to know what would happen to the art market in the United Kingdom after Brexit. Many British gallery owners experienced it as a real misfortune. And they had no shortage of reasons, since since 2020 exports and taxation have become more complicated.
Today it is more difficult for them to sell to European collectors. So much so that some of them quickly opened companies in other European countries, or even Northern Ireland, in order to be able to buy and sell without having to start cumbersome administrative procedures. As a result of this, Paris has become a flourishing market, but it would be unfair to say that it was only a consequence of Brexit, since the Parisian scene had been articulating a very well-armed art system for years.
For all these reasons, it has been very interesting to know the figures from the latest report published by the British Art Market Federation (Bamf) on the British market in 2022. Commissioned by the economist Clare McAndrew, it confirms once again that this is still the case, with a 18% share and 11.9 billion dollars in turnover, the second market in the world after the US (45%). And holding only one point above the Chinese market (17%).
But these figures, which show a resilient British market, do not mean that the entire industry is going through very difficult times, as it depends excessively on foreign markets and has not yet recovered from the downturn of the pandemic. Compared to the other two markets mentioned, its growth has been very lower: from 2009 to 2022 it has only grown by 33%, while the North American has grown by 149% and the Chinese by 54%. This is attested to by the fact that imports of art and antiques have fallen to the British by more than half since 2015, remaining at 2.8 billion.
Gone are the days when many thought that by getting rid of EU legislation they could turn the UK into a more favorable and flexible market for artistic objects. It hasn't been like that. A negative reading can be made of the figures mentioned, however, today its art scene is hyperactive, and it would be unfair not to value the relevance of its 7,800 galleries and auction rooms, its 45,520 professionals, its fairs, its museums and its artists. And beyond figures and percentages, the British art industry is very powerful.
