Hundreds of artists, gallery owners, and collectors staged sit-ins last week in museums across Spain to draw attention to the country’s high cultural VAT.
Over 100 demonstrators parked their backsides on the floor of Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía in the room dedicated to the late American artist Richard Serra. They surrounded Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi, a replica of a sculpture that had disappeared from a storage facility sometime between 1990 and 2005. It consisted of four 38-ton steel blocks that vanished without a trace. According to El País, one demonstrator warned, “The sector is going to disappear just like this piece vanished.”
The sit-in was part of ongoing efforts by the visual arts community to push the government to reduce the 21 percent VAT on cultural goods, a rate that has remained unchanged since 2012. Organizers pointed out that neighboring countries have significantly lower rates: Italy charges 5 percent, France 5.5 percent, Germany 7 percent, and Portugal 6 percent.
During the protest, participants chanted the comparative VAT rates in unison and called on the government to act. “We are not a luxury industry… we are culture,” they said. They also demanded the resignation of culture minister Ernest Urtasun and finance minister María Jesús Montero, highlighting what they described as years of government silence on the issue.
The sit-in followed galleries across Spain closing on February 2 in a symbolic protest against the high VAT. This year’s action took place just weeks ahead of the 45th edition of ARCOmadrid, the country’s leading contemporary art fair. Organizers said that the 21 percent VAT puts Spanish galleries at a significant disadvantage compared with international competitors. For example, a €10,000 artwork sold in Paris would cost €12,100 including VAT, compared with €10,550 in France at 5.5 percent VAT—a difference that can determine whether a sale succeeds.
Idoia Fernández, president of the Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries of Spain, said the protest was about “asking for equality.” Protesters held banners reading, “We are not asking for privileges, we are asking for equality.” They emphasized, “There are no museums without art, nor a country without heritage.”
Similar demonstrations took place at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern in Valencia, and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona.
After a decades-long pressure campaign by Italian galleries, artists, auction houses, and art market players, the Italian government announced last year that it would cut the country’s VAT on art sales to just 5 percent. It was previously 22 percent, the highest rate in the European Union.
