Spanish gallery homeowners will go on strike to demand a European VAT | Culture | EUROtoday

Spanish up to date artwork galleries will shut their doorways from February 2 to 7 to demand a discount in VAT (21%) that places them at an obstacle in comparison with their European colleagues. The strike is the primary measure of the package deal agreed on Friday between professionals within the sector, some 125 grouped within the Contemporary Art Consortium. The closing week will happen within the midst of preparations for the forty fifth version of Arco, which shall be held between March 4 and eight. It shouldn’t be the primary time that the sector closes its doorways. It occurred in 1991, for a similar financial motive that now threatens its exercise, VAT.

In their assertion, the gallery homeowners recall that they’ve been pressured to behave within the face of the paralysis and lack of response from the Government and request the adoption of a cultural VAT for artists and galleries, transposing Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 of April 5, 2022. “We are forced,” the professionals write, “to adopt these measures in the face of a situation that is seriously threatening the sustainability of the work of artists and galleries.” “The lack of action by the Government regarding the adoption of a cultural VAT, as all European countries around us have done, is being extraordinarily detrimental to contemporary art in Spain since it undermines the competitiveness of Spanish art galleries, making their work to defend, support, promote and internationalize the work of our artists practically unviable,” they argue.

The forgotten of Culture

Managers and artists who work in up to date artwork resurrect a grievance that they’ve already expressed on totally different events: they’re a forgotten sector of cultural insurance policies. “We find ourselves,” they are saying, “at a disadvantage compared to other creative sectors, such as music, performing arts or cinema, whose professionals have a reduced VAT rate on the sales of their creations through distributors.”

In addition to the closure of the premises, the gallery homeowners have determined to droop for 3 months the collaboration that they normally altruistically keep with museums and personal entities. Galleries assist by lending works, but in addition by sharing their information on artists and items that solely they’ve details about. “For a week, we are no longer free cultural spaces, open to citizens. In this way, the largest museum in Spain is closed,” they level out.

In a large occasion held on the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, in December of final 12 months, gallery homeowners and artists learn the manifesto titled IVA Culture isa doc wherein they denounced the disadvantages that sustaining 21% VAT has for Spanish up to date artwork, whereas France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Portugal have already lowered it with the intention to apply European rules, between 5% and seven%. There was no response from the Minister of Culture.

The doc launched right this moment signifies that the scenario is being terribly detrimental to up to date artwork in Spain “since it undermines the competitiveness of Spanish art galleries, making their work to defend, support, promote and internationalize the work of our artists practically unviable.”

The consortium textual content concludes by lamenting that “this situation is unfair and unsustainable, and contradicts the principles of cultural equity that should guide the action of any government committed to culture.”