UK Art Market
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The Fairhaven Panels, a remarkable set of four highly decorated panels and the only known publicly available works by the artist De Vély, are at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found.
The panels, created in the 17th century, depict four different personifications or gods: Mars, Virtu Invincible, Minerva, and Magnificence, focusing on victory in war and the beauty of peace.
Set in their original gilded metal cases, each panel features a skilful combination of glass, pearls, shells, stones, enamel and gilt metal. These are materials that do not fade over time, so their vivid colours remain particularly striking to modern audiences. The panels are now valued at over £1.6 million.
These works could provide new insight into this artist and the unique sculptural technique he used to craft them, as they are a rarity in European art and embrace the baroque taste for extravagance. The elaborate technique that De Vély employed would have been considerably time-consuming and is reflected in the nearly 20 years they took to complete.
The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The Committee made its recommendation on the basis that the panels met the second and third Waverley criteria for their outstanding aesthetic importance and their outstanding significance to the study of collecting. They also highlighted its importance for further study into 17th-century works of art employing pearl, precious and semi-precious stones and glass granules and the light they shed on De Vély, an artist about whom very little is known.
The UK’s art trade is lobbying the government to simplify import and export procedures as official trade figures continue to plummet in the wake of Brexit and shifts in wealth towards Asia.
According to the latest United Nations figures, published in the Art Basel/UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2024 in October, the value of fine art and antiques imports to Britain fell by 16% year on year in 2023, taking its global share down to 7%. Compare this with 2010, when the UK’s share accounted for 30% of global imports. Hong Kong continues to pick up the slack, with a 9% increase in imports last year.
The value of exports from the UK also dropped by 16% last year—down an astonishing 60% since 2019, when its global share of exports was nearly on a par with the US. The UK now accounts for 15% of global exports (compared with 35% for the US, where the value of exports has stagnated). Hong Kong’s global share has expanded substantially from 2% in 2010 to 18% in 2023, surpassing the UK.
As the survey’s author and cultural economist Clare McAndrew points out, the UK’s 60% drop in exports in 2019 followed an “unusual” 70% spike in exports in 2018-19 as dealers and collectors sought to shift stock out of Britain ahead of the Brexit deadline. Nonetheless, taking a wider view, from 2018 to 2023, UK exports still fell by 32%, according to the UN Comtrade data. The figures from the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs show a similar picture: exports fell 27% between 2018 and 2023 (and imports fell 24% over the same period). McAndrew notes there are discrepancies over the exact size of the spike in exports in 2018-19.
In times of economic hardship, it is usually lower and middle-tier dealers who feel the pinch most, with those at the top considered largely inured to economic and political pressures. But that trend appears to be in reverse. According to The Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2024, dealers with turnover of less than USD 500,000 had the largest increase in sales (11%) last year, while those at the top of the market with turnover of more than USD 10 million saw averages decline by 7%.
To some extent, these findings are being borne out in London, where pockets of activity and growth appear most robust among emerging galleries and those who are less than 10 years old. Over the past few years, galleries have sprung up across the capital including Albion Jeune, Brooke Benington, and Ab-Anbar Gallery in Fitzrovia; Brunette Coleman and Hot Wheels (hailing from Athens) in Bloomsbury; and Neven Gallery, Sherbet Green, Ginny on Frederick, and Rose Easton in the city’s east. Others such as Emalin and Union Pacific have opened second spaces after a relatively short amount of time in business.
Read more: https://www.artbasel.com/stories/in-london-new-galleries-are-sparking-an-artistic-renaissance
