UK art exports soared to £11.3bn in 2014 despite new regulations
London held on to its title as one of the world’s leading marketplaces for art after the UK exported a record £11.3bn last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
UK art exports have now more than doubled from just £5bn in 2005 to their high last year.
The increase will further dampen fears that the controversial Art Resale Right, expanded in 2012 to grant a share of up to four per cent of the resale value of works to artists alive or dead for less than 70 years, would impact London’s art trade.
“There was some concern in London that the new law would encourage sellers to use rival markets where no such resale right applies,” said Bruno Boesch co-editor of The Art Collecting Legal Handbook.
“However, sales prices achieved in London are normally so high that there is little incentive to sell in other markets- in Paris, for example.”