UK Fine and Decorative Arts Exports Decline

The Antique Trade Gazette has an interesting article on how UK fine and decorative art exports have drastically declined. This is interesting as just recently the ATG was reporting how the UK was catching up to the US as the leader in art sales. Exports of art and antiques fell in 2009 to most European Union countries, Russia, China/Hong Kong and the US. The few gains appear to be limited to some Middle Eastern countries.  Imports of art and antiques into the UK also suffered large declines.

This particular article states that for 2009 art and antiques exports fell by nearly 25%. An interesting article to read.

The ATG article states

Exports to the United States, the UK’s chief international trading partner globally, were hit badly for the second year running: antiques saw a 25.7% decline to £186.1m, while pictures fell by 29.3% to £622.1m.

Imports of pictures from the US fared slightly better, down by 22.6% to £747.2m, while antiques imports from the US held up relatively well, falling only 3% to £110.3m.

With the worldwide recession beginning to bite hard as 2009 began, the almost universal decline in the movement of goods is hardly surprising. What was not clear until now was how much trade would be hit.

Switzerland, a non-EU country that acts as Europe’s chief entrepôt for art and antiques, saw a 65.5% decline in the value of antiques (to £24m) exported from the UK, while picture exports dropped to £406.6m, a fall of 24.8%. Imports from Switzerland saw antiques down £29.6m, a 26.4% fall, while pictures were down 20.6% at £454.6m.

There are two highly notable changes. The first is the huge level of pictures making their way from the UK to the Ukraine – £115.3m worth – putting it only third to the US and Switzerland as a UK trading partner in this category. This could simply be the result of vigorous acquisition programmes by one or two well-known Ukrainian collectors. The second is the appearance of Greece at the top of the table for EU trading partners, taking £55m in pictures from the UK.

To read the full article, click HERE.