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The panic and confusion over President Donald Trump’s tariffs have not waned since last week. While Trump postponed actions against Canada and Mexico for 30 days, after reaching agreements with their leaders, his love for using import taxes as political cudgels seems only to have increased. This week, he slapped an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China and hinted that the United Kingdom and the European Union will be his next targets.
The Chinese Front
In the art industry, anyone who does business abroad (which is pretty much everyone) is bracing for impact, but U.S. galleries with connections to China are suddenly grappling with a whole new state of play. Some, at least, were able to prepare.
“We anticipated this and planned exhibitions at the gallery through 2025 that do not incorporate art being shipped from mainland China,” New York dealer Eli Klein, a specialist in Chinese art, told me. “Obviously, if this tariff continues long-term, it could present challenges. However, we have always been hopeful that the relationship between the U.S. and China will improve, allowing the world’s two superpowers to flourish together in harmony.”
That’s an optimistic perspective. One U.S.-based advisor whose clients are primarily in China expressed serious concern about how the Chinese government’s retaliatory measures will hurt business. And dealer Pearl Lam, who has galleries in Hong Kong and Shanghai, said, “The conflict isn’t good for the Chinese art market. The tariff is terrible because it will impact the American market and push prices too high.”
Lam said that tariffs are why there are so few exhibitions of Chinese artists in the U.S. The “tough reality,” Lam said, “is that most of the galleries don’t want to pay to exhibit these artists.”
Trouble in Europe
President Trump told the BBC that both the E.U. and the U.K. were acting “out of line,” and suggested that tariffs could be coming “pretty soon.” He said, “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing, and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products.”
Heavy tariffs on the U.K. and E.U. nations could result in U.S. collectors spending more at home and foregoing international deals. David Fleiss, who runs Galerie 1900-2000 in Paris and New York, imagined an outcome similar to Brexit. “No one wants to sell work in London anymore,” he said. “Countries that raise taxes for art have the weaker collections in the world. Every Brazilian that has a great collection has it outside of the country.”
Not everyone is eager to discuss the matter. Three major galleries I contacted that have locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia declined to comment.
Depending on just how far-reaching Trump’s tariffs end up being (if he enacts them at all), there could be at least one winner in Europe. Switzerland, home to the industry-leading Art Basel fair, is not an E.U. member. While the 2024 edition of Art Basel Paris awed visitors, a steep tariff on imports from France could suddenly make an October visit there less attractive for Americans.
The Bottom Line
Nothing is ever certain with Trump, so who knows which, if any, of these tariffs will go into effect? But uncertainty is never great for business—and Europeans hardly need more reasons to roll their eyes at Americans.
