New York, senator proposes taxing auctions to fund art education programs

Impose a special tax on the sale of artwork, antique furniture and jewelry at auctions to fund public art education programs. This is the content of a bill introduced in the New York State Senate by Senator Robert Jackson, a lawyer by profession who is very active in campaigns to promote public education. “New York,” Jackson explains in the text of his proposal, “is considered by many to be the cultural capital of the world and a major global marketplace for art, but our schools can only provide basic levels of art education because of their financial constraints. By creating an ’art education fund’ administered by the New York State Council on the Arts and funded by a special tax on artwork, antique furniture and antique jewelry sold at auctions, many more of our state’s children will be able to access and learn about art, and in some cases become the art lovers and collectors of tomorrow.”

The idea is to propose a 0.3 percent tax on the total transaction. The tax, the proposal states, would be imposed on the buyer and should be collected by the entity conducting the auction at the time of the sale (a mechanism, in essence, similar to our tourist tax, although in this case the tax is a percentage and not fixed). The resources raised by the tax, the plan explains, would be allocated to a new “Art education fund” that would promote these activities: painting, visual arts, ceramics, field trips to museums or other institutions recognized by the New York State Council of the Arts, stipends for artists working in residencies. However, the proposal does not specify to which sales it should apply: whether to all sales involving entities based in New York State, or whether to sales that physically take place in the state.

If such a tax were applied, for example, to the sale of the Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, New York state coffers would benefit by more than $1 million. Of course, this is currently only a project, and the process to see it through will not be easy. Right now, the taxation that New York State charges on auctions is 8.875 percent, and as a result Senator Jackson’s proposal, if it actually finds approval, will raise taxation to more than 9 percent: skeptics believe that raising the rate could discourage both buyers, who would have an additional cost to pay, and sellers, who might turn to auction houses based in places where taxation is more advantageous. On the other side of the fence, however, is apublic education that has greatly suffered the blows of the pandemic, and extra revenue from those who have no problem making often very expensive purchases could provide vital oxygen.

Pictured: an auction at Christie’s in New York (2015).

New York, senator proposes taxing auctions to fund art education programs

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