Arte Fiera, gallery owners protest with whistles against government for failure to reduce VAT on artworks

On the last day of Arte Fiera, gallery owners took the lead in a “whistling” protest against the government’s decision not to reduce VAT on artworks in Italy. With previously distributed whistles in their mouths, exhibitors made their disappointment loudly heard in the fair pavilions against a failure to act that would bring VAT rates on artworks in line with European standards. A protest (a video of which can be seen on the socials of ITALICS Art and Landscape, a network that brings together more than seventy Italian galleries of contemporary, modern and ancient art founded in 2020 to tell the story of the Italian territory through the voice of gallerists) for “the failure to lower VAT and not to let the Italian cultural system die.”

The protest comes in the hours following an earlier statement in which ITALICS itself wanted to express “profound astonishment and great apprehension about the government’s recent decisions on VAT in the art market, present in the Culture Decree approved yesterday by the Chamber of Deputies.”

“The 74 galleries of ITALICS,” the note reads, “express astonishment and apprehension for the future of Italian culture and creativity following the approval of the Culture Decree in the Chamber of Deputies without the announced VAT reduction.” The statement goes on to say that “ignoring the opportunity offered by Directive (EU) 2022/542, the Italian government - bucking the trend of neighboring countries and our closest competitors that have important cultural traditions and have immediately seized it, such as France and Germany - has decided to turn its back on the Italian art market, showing indifference to its economic value and, even more serious, for its cultural value, effectively decreeing its death sentence and causing incalculable damage in terms of support for artists and our country’s cultural relevance on the global stage. Many players in the cultural industry are already closing or, for the few to whom it is possible, relocating. We appeal to the government,” he concludes, “to immediately review its positions on this matter, which are already causing economic and cultural damage to our country, the undisputed cradle of world culture.”

Arte Fiera, gallery owners protest with whistles against government for failure to reduce VAT on artworks

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