Millions of dollars of artwork left U.K. before cutoff

Among the thousands of trucks backed up in Dover last month trying to get across the Channel, one was carrying a painting by Henri Matisse. A piece by the Argentine-born artist Lucio Fontana was also in the queue, along with tens of millions of dollars of other artworks.

The owners wanted to get their art back to the continent before the U.K. left the European Union’s single market.

Before Dec. 31, European artworks could, like all other goods, move freely between the EU and the U.K. with minimal restrictions and without cumbersome tax and customs procedures. At the end of the Brexit transition period, galleries and collectors in London had to decide whether to stick with the U.K. or ship their works into the EU before the deadline. Several decided the latter was a better bet.

The risk for art dealers is that they could be hit by import duties when bringing works of art into the EU in the future, according to Chris Evans, a general manager at shipping firm Cadogan Tate. He said that midsized galleries and dealers who sell regularly to buyers in Europe particularly have been affected.

His company moved about 500 pieces for one client that has shifted about two-thirds of its stock into the EU. Another moved a quarter of its collection — about $5 million of art — and a third had moved smaller amounts earlier in the year.

Quantifying the total amount of art that was shipped out of the U.K. before the turn of the year isn’t straightforward because of a lack of data in a market that prides itself on privacy and secrecy. But anecdotal evidence backs up Evans’ impression that mid-sized operators and niche pockets of the market have been most affected.

The director of another specialist shipping company said that the volume of artworks it moved to the EU in December jumped 75% from the previous year. The firm, which he asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of its business, had 34 bookings last month as it trucked about 125 works to mainland Europe.

Each item is wrapped and packed in a special frame to protect it from bumps, changes in temperature, and humidity or dust. The most valuable and delicate paintings sometimes require custom-made cases or even temperature-controlled units.

The impact of the Brexit departures is likely only a ripple in a U.K. market that in 2019 was estimated to have reached $12.7 billion in sales, according to the authoritative Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, making it the secondbiggest in the world. But it’s still another example of how Brexit is bringing friction to markets where previously there was none.

With EU trade accounting for only about 20% of the value of the U.K. art market, some experts argue that the impact of Brexit will be limited, particularly at the top end of the market where global businesses such as large London auction houses will expand procedures they already use for non-EU transactions to their EU operations.