The UK’s vote to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016 was met with concern across the British art market. From anxiety over the UK losing its position as the “gateway to Europe”, to rising administration burden and restrictions on the free movement of goods and people, there were unanswered questions, however one voted.
A decade on and the impact of Brexit, always a complex and polarising debate, has been complicated by broader geopolitical shocks, including a global pandemic, several wars in the Middle East, the first conflict in Europe since the Second World War, a couple of economic recessions and the introduction of punitive tariffs by US President Donald Trump.
“It’s not as simple as cause and effect but when you look at the aggregation of directly linked issues and broader factors, the impact [of Brexit] is amplified,” says Paul Hewitt, the director general of The Society of London Art Dealers (Slad).
On paper, the UK’s position in the global market has proved more resilient than many anticipated. According to the latest Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, the UK has retained second position (behind the US) in terms of global trade by value, at 18%, admittedly down from its 21% share in 2016.
“The drop in the UK’s trade figures after the 2008 recession was more dramatic than the decline we saw following the announcement of Brexit,” says Clare McAndrew, the founder of Arts Economics and author of the Art Basel and UBS report, who is preparing an updated edition of The British Art Market 2023 survey in conjunction with The British Art Market Federation (BAMF), due out later this year to mark the association’s 30th anniversary.
A stellar line up of auctions this June, including the hotly anticipated Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s—which at £200m holds the highest ever estimate for an auction in Europe—certainly supports the idea that confidence in London’s market for high-end works stands. “London is, and remains, Sotheby’s second largest and most international selling centre after New York,” says Alex Branczik, the chairman of Modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s London.
“At a time when market cycles are under scrutiny, London has also played a leading role in restoring confidence,” Branczik adds. “The sale of Pauline Karpidas’ collection last year marked an important inflection point, helping to build momentum that has since been carried through globally.”
At lower price points the impact is less clear and reflections less positive. “As predicted, it has crippled the trade at the lower end and burdened the top end with copious and expensive paperwork,” says Thomas Woodham-Smith, the director of Treasure House Fair, and a former director and co-founder of Masterpiece London fair, which closed in 2023, citing to rising overheads and the challenge of attracting international exhibitors to the capital.
Genres have also fared differently—in particular, Old Masters sales in the UK appear to be continuing a trajectory of decline, from 2014 when the UK made up 52% of global trade in the European Old Master market by value, to 38% in 2025.
The loss of ‘elegant’ business
The greatest impact, for dealers at least, appears to be the loss of ease and flexibility.
“The additional hurdles placed on the movement of art have proved burdensome—import and export controls, temporary import, ATA carnet controls, import VAT—all have required complex navigation by stakeholders, not seen pre-Brexit,” says Amanda Gray, a partner at Mischon de Reya law firm. “Gallerists and collectors have borne the brunt of the further layers of administration resulting in additional cost, uncertainty and delay.” Grays says that while Mischon de Reya has worked with its clients “to unravel many of the direct and ancillary issues that can arise, decisions to loan or transact have notably been impacted.”
Data as early as 2023 indicates that this has had a marked effect on the scale of imports into UK market, with Arts Economics reporting that UK imports of art and antiques fell sharply following Brexit, from $3.2bn in 2019 to $2.1bn in 2020 (although the Covid-19 pandemic also contributed to this decline). For a market heavily dependent on imported works rather than domestic supply, this marks a significant adjustment.
Some of this bureaucracy reflects wider regulatory decisions, separate to Brexit, including the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which took effect in 2020. But the reduced flexibility adds to widespread feeling that the UK is handing other markets an edge.
France is yet to substantially knock a portion of the UK’s global share but is widely perceived as gaining traction, supported by Art Basel’s entry to the fair scene in 2022. Changes to other tax regimes, including Italy’s newly lowered 5%VAT rate on art sales, combined with the UK’s increases in inheritance, income and capital gains tax are also stoking conversation around whether London can maintain its status as a desirable place to live, work and trade.
Reports of a broader exodus of wealth from the UK have followed the abolition of the Non-Dom regime last year, but until tax data from January 2027 emerges the extent of movement is unclear.
There are areas in which the UK has exercised its autonomy since Brexit, most notably in the field of regulation. For instance, the UK art trade refrained from signing up to the EU’s new cultural goods import regulations (EU 2019/880) following outcry from the trade.
A new normal
Amidst the more dramatic announcements following the 2016 referendum, notably David Zwirner’s swift opening of a flagship gallery in Paris, there have been gradual, yet still substantial, changes to ways of doing business.
Operational partnerships between London and EU galleries continue, but the physical presence of the latter in the UK’s capital has seemingly declined. In 2016, eight of the Society of London Art Dealer’s 140 members (6%) were UK branches of European galleries; by 2026, these had all closed and resigned from Slad, despite total membership rising.
“There are new ways of working coming through, different ways of approaching challenges,” says Alexander Bradford, the global business development and sustainability manager of the fine art logistics firm Gander & White. “We have seen, for example, an increase in the use of bonded warehouses and our being asked to act as authorised consigners [where we are able to bring trucks to our premises for customs clearance].”
Unprecedented digital advances are offering up new platforms to automate or maximise operational efficiencies in, what many hope, will alleviate the rapid rise in overheads.
Galleries are also experimenting with new business models. “We closed our permanent London space in Fitzrovia in June 2024, the economics of maintaining a fixed space in London simply became untenable for a niche gallery operating on extremely low margins,” says Rakeb Sile, the co-founder and chief executive of Addis Fine Art, which has moved towards a project-based model, collaborating with partner galleries and participating in key fairs.
“I believe the galleries that will survive and thrive are those that find new ways of working collaboratively, sharing resources, and monetising their expertise beyond the traditional sales model,” Sile says. “The specialised knowledge a gallery like ours holds has enormous value that isn’t always reflected in our economics. That has to change.”
