{"id":253870,"date":"2025-11-01T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253870\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T05:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T05:16:08","slug":"artissima-opened-its-doors-on-thursday-with-176-igalleries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/253870\/","title":{"rendered":"Artissima Opened Its Doors on Thursday with 176 Igalleries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tItaly\u2019s biggest contemporary art fair, Artissima<\/a>, opened its doors for its 32nd edition to VIPs on Thursday in Turin\u2019s Oval Lingotto arena. Earlier this week, the fair\u2019s director Luigi Fassi told ARTnews that \u201cthere are high hopes\u201d after the Italian government this past July slashed VAT on art sales<\/a> from 22 percent to just 5 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am personally more positive than ever,\u201d said Fassi, who is leading his fourth Artissima. \u201cThe drop is VAT is big news. We now have the lowest tax rate on art sales in the European Union, and this is the first international fair in Italy since the cut, so everyone is excited. It gives Italian galleries and collectors a solid foundation to compete on an international level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"View<\/p>\n

\n\tThe government finally bowed after two decades of lobbying from galleries, antique dealers, and auction houses. A study published earlier this year by consulting and market intelligence company Nomisma estimated that cutting the VAT could see an additional generation of \u20ac1.5 billion (around $1.7 billion) over three years. It also predicted that the Italian economy could swell by up to \u20ac4.2 billion ($4.8 billion) as a result.<\/p>\n

\n\tA total of 176 international galleries from 36 countries have set up shop in Turin for Artissima, which runs until November 2. Of those, 73 hail from Italy, while 26 are participating for the first time via the fair\u2019s New Entries section. <\/p>\n

\n\tA thronging crowd gathered on Thursday, including groups of youthful Chinese collectors wrapping up the Frieze London to Art Basel Paris to Artissima route, all held back to back in October. Italy\u2019s prominent contemporary art collecting families were also present, with members of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Bulgari, and Daniele clans all eying up possible purchases. On hand were top curators including Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London; Emma Lavigne, director\u00a0of the Pinault Collection; Polly Staple, director of British art at Tate; and Massimiliano Gioni, artistic director of New York\u2019s New Museum.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome gallerists told ARTnews that they noticed a lack of American collectors in Turin, as was the case at June\u2019s Art Basel in Switzerland, but more than one dealer said a few collectors had skipped Art Basel Paris in favor of Artissima.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the first-day sales were five paintings by Jo\u00e3o Gabriel in the range of \u20ac2,900\u2013\u20ac14,000 ($3,300\u2013$16,100) at Lehman Gallery in Porto, Portugal; two works by Silvia Capuzzo for \u20ac1,900 ($2,200) each at VIN VIN, which has spaces in Naples and Vienna; and three works by Simon Pasieka, ranging from \u20ac8,700\u2013\u20ac17,000 ($10,000\u2013$19,600), to \u201can important collection in Switzerland,\u201d according to Paris-based gallery Romeo Paprocki.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, several dealers and art advisers told ARTnews that while selling was of course important, Artissima is also about fueling dialogue and conversations with collectors, curators, and museum directors, which seemingly has become less the case at mega-fairs like Frieze and Art Basel. At these events, there is immense pressure to sell in order to make a profit or at least break even.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cArtissima has always been a \u2018curator fair\u2019 in the sense that there\u2019s a lot of curators and museum directors in town,\u201d Milan-based adviser Mattia Pozzoni told ARTnews. \u201cThere is an opportunity to make great contacts, and this can often be more useful than simply making sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTatiana Cheneviere, the founder of Pipeline Gallery in London, is exhibiting at Artissima for the first time. She said she\u2019s on a mission to inject more purpose, perspective, and patronage into collecting, which she believes has become \u201ctoo transactional.\u201d She subsequently launched an advisory, Black + Cheneviere (B+C), with fellow gallerist Alice Black this summer to counter the issue by promoting greater patronage and support for artists from collectors. At the fair, Pipeline Gallery has a solo booth by Giorgio van Meerwijk, whose work Cheneviere said is suited to a fair like Artissima, where \u201cconversational pieces which appeal to conversations with curators and museums directors are most valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRose Easton, founder of the eponymous London gallery, is showing at the fair for the first time. (As a UK gallerist, any sales she makes this year will not benefit from Italy\u2019s new 5 percent VAT rate.) \u201cI\u2019m trying to strike a balance between the fairs that are more commercially focused and the fairs that are more about presenting ambitious installations that can further a different agenda for my gallery,\u201d she told ARTnews. \u201cIt\u2019s important to make new contacts with curators and museum people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of the discussions gallerists were having with institutional figures were paying off, it seemed. The Fondazione per l\u2019Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, which was established in 2000 to promote the cultural and artistic heritage of Turin and Piedmont, has increased its acquisitions fund to \u20ac300,000 this year. Among this year\u2019s nine acquisitions for the Castello di Rivoli Museo d\u2019Arte Contemporanea were Cian Dayrit\u2019s Natural Histories of Struggle: For Land (2021) from Nome Gallery in Berlin and Muscle Memory III (2022) by Majd Abdel Hamid from Bologna\u2019s P420 Gallery. <\/p>\n

\n\tFondazione CRT also purchased five works for GAM \u2013 Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, including Marco Cingolani\u2019s Conferenza stampa (1993) from Thomas Brambilla Gallery in Bergamo and David\u00a0Schutter\u2019s ANB C 1.03\u00a0series (2024) from Rome\u2019s Magazzino Gallery.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe standard of institutional programming this year combined with the attractiveness of the VAT reduction has made a visit to Turin more attractive for collectors and professionals this year,\u201d Franceasco Manacord, the director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d\u2019Arte Contemporanea, told ARTnews.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough sales on the VIP day at Artissima are on the lower end of the market, it\u2019s perhaps unfair to view this fair as a litmus test for the effectiveness of Italy\u2019s reduced VAT on art sales rate. Artissima trades the commercial cut and thrust of the mega-fairs for a more academic, contemplative energy. But it\u2019s hard to ignore the hype surrounding Italy\u2019s contemporary art scene, especially after mega-dealer Thaddaeus Ropac launched a Milan outpost in September<\/a>. The move, Ropac told ARTnews at the time, was confirmed long before Italy introduced its flat tax rate for non-doms of just \u20ac200,000 ($230,000), making it an appealing landing spot for the ultra-wealthy.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Artissim\u2019s director Fassi told ARTnews, the fair is as much \u201ca cultural platform as a marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPozzoni said collectors \u201care still taking their time, but the recent VAT reduction is starting to stimulate great confidence and renewed interest in the Italian market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrance also cut VAT<\/a> on art sales earlier this year in January to 5.5 percent. ARTnews asked French dealer Almine Rech<\/a>, who has nine international spaces including three in Paris, if her business saw immediate benefits following the move. \u201cIn France, it was very well received, but it\u2019s difficult to say if there was an instant uptick in sales due to the change,\u201d she said. \u201cOne really positive aspect is that the cutting VAT has kept artworks in France, because dealers are not traveling abroad [to take advantage of lower VAT].\u201d<\/p>\n

Rech is not showing at Artissima but her one of her New York gallery directors, Ermanno Rivetti, was in Turin. \u201cHe sold two pieces at Artissima after conversations with Italian collectors on a stairwell, so there is definitely good energy at the fair,\u201d she added. \u201cItalians collectors have great taste, great culture, they understand art history. They know what art is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s biggest contemporary art fair, Artissima, opened its doors for its 32nd edition to VIPs on Thursday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[118229,118230,76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-253870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-almine-rech","9":"tag-artissima","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-ca","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}