First, the good news. As New York’s intense season of art fairs and auctions kicks off, fine art seems to be spared from the new US trade tariffs. Thanks to historic laws cited in the White House’s latest legislation, artworks are protected as “informational material”, an exemption rooted in the US First Amendment, which covers free speech.
There remains, however, deep unease in an already weakened art market over the impact of the baseline 10 per cent tariff on other imports and about what regime will emerge after the current 90-day pause. “It’s so painful,” says Hugh Gibson, director of London’s Thomas Gibson Fine Art, ahead of showing at this year’s Tefaf New York fair (May 9-13). “I don’t know how any shipper, or anyone, is meant to implement any of this.”