The UK is set to introduce a system to standardise the recording of auction sales of art and antiques. With the aim of providing data and statistical evidence of the auction sector’s output, art professionals hope it will help the government to better understand and appreciate the impact of UK’s art industry.<\/p>\n
The Standard Industrial Classification code (SIC)\u2014known as UK SIC 47.921\u2014will encompass “activities of retail auctioneering houses for art works, antiques and antiquities”. <\/p>\n
Its forthcoming launch was announced by Paula Orrell, director of the Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN), England, during a panel discussion at this year\u2019s Art Business Conference in London, held 8 September, which saw over 280 attendees meet at a new venue for the event, the Royal College of Physicians. <\/p>\n
The panel was moderated by The Art Newspaper’s art market editor-at-large Melanie Gerlis and also featured Paul Hewitt, director general at Society of London Art Dealers; Alison Cole, Director of The Cultural Policy Unit and also The Art Newspaper’s editor-at-large; and Tom Kiehl, chief executive of Music Limited.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the discussion was a call for a new association or body for the visual arts, which would bring together representatives from both the commercial and public sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the pandemic there\u2019s been a real need for a shared combined approach from the whole ecosystem. We\u2019re currently very disparate in our approach: artists working independently, commercial galleries, public sector, auction houses,\u201d Orrell said. She explained that the new SIC would likely not come in to use until 2031 but, nevertheless, marks an important step forward in the recognition and visibility of the sector\u2019s economic contribution, with implications \u201cbeyond any single political cycle\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hewitt was keen to stress that the proposed new body would not \u201creplace\u201d pre-existing trade associations and bodies across public and commercial functions of the visual arts but would, instead, seek to \u201camplify\u2019 the impact and evidence across the sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get much time [to speak or present information to Government officials], so you want the arts to be able to communicate as an ecosystem, with one voice around collective interests,\u201d Cole argued. She also highlighted the need for a high-profile public figure or ambassador to champion the visual arts, pointing to the influence that such strategies have had in the music and sport industries.<\/p>\n
The panel\u2019s conversation echoed broader calls for greater support of the industry which were raised throughout the day\u2019s agenda -with speakers exploring the needs of artists to better understand and be helped with creating sustainable business models, new approaches to philanthropy and pressing discussions as to how advances in AI can advance efficiency and security for businesses and organisations, which face mounting overheads and reducing funds.<\/p>\n
While plans for a sector-spanning entity or trade body remained at the \u201cstarting block\u201d, several interested bodies are said to be in discussion, with Hewitt adding that the panel was designed to act as a \u201ccall to action to get involved\u201d and encouraging anyone interested invited to contact CVAN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK is set to introduce a system to standardise the recording of auction sales of art and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[12581,307,304,305,306,106546,67545,308,93,61,60,1192],"class_list":["post-621519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art-market","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-auction-houses","tag-cultural-policy","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-uk-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}