Britain exporting £5.5m of art every day

Henry Moores Reclining Figure: Festival sold for £19.1m in February. Picture: Getty

In a sign that wealthy foreign investors are increasingly prepared to dip into their pockets for lucrative artwork, buyers from abroad paid close to £2 billion for art and cultural exports in the year to May 2012 – £5.5 million a day – with exports of modern art more than doubling in value in the space of a year.

The figures, compiled by Sweet & Maxwell, a legal information provider, reveal the value of the art export market swelled by 32 per cent in the 12 months to last May, with around £1.97bn paid out overall.

Art enthusiasts welcomed the buoyant figures, particularly in light of recent legislation giving artists or their heirs the right to a percentage of resale values and which, it had been feared, would deter foreign buyers from entering the market.

Massimo Sterpi, co-editor of The Art Collecting Legal Handbook, said that despite the ongoing economic difficulties, art remained an alluring buy for the well-off. He explained: “Art is an increasingly important trophy asset for international high net-worth individuals.”

The period covered by the Sweet & Maxwell research saw a host of high-profile sales at auction. Last February, a new record was set for a Henry Moore sculpture after his prized bronze, Reclining Figure: Festival, easily surpassed its estimate of £3.5m to £5.5m at Christie’s, eventually selling for more than £19.1m.

Until then, the most expensive piece of British sculpture ever sold was Damien Hirst’s The Golden Calf, which went for £10.3m in 2008. The bronze was bought by Cologne dealer Alex Lachmann, who normally bids on behalf of Russian collectors.

The same month, Van Gogh’s Vue de l’asile de la Chapelle de Remy, which had belonged to the late Elizabeth Taylor, fetched more than £10.1m at Christie’s. It is understood it was also bought by an international collector.

Historically, artists’ rights to proceeds of sales applied only to those who were living. However, the Artist’s Resale Rights Directive, which came into effect last year, grants artists and heirs of artists who have been dead for less than 70 years up to 4 per cent of a piece’s resale price.

Many in the art world feared the British market would suffer, with Anthony Browne, chairman of the British Art Market Federation, warning that an uneven playing field would be created, and Britain would be “handing a large part of our art market to our rivals on a plate”.

However, Alex Branzcik, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s in London, told The Scotsman the London market was strong. He said: “I think we were more concerned about the possible impact of the resale rights than has proved to be the case. I think London has so much going for it as a sales venue. We have participation here from all over the world, and the timeline that London sits on straddles Asia and the US – we’ve seen far greater participation internationally.”

Mr Sterpi also believes London’s popularity as a second home for foreigners from the Gulf states, Russia, and Hong Kong helped drive sales up.

“Many art experts and dealers were concerned London’s position in the art world could suffer compared to New York or Hong Kong, which haven’t introduced any such levy on the resale of art,” he said. “The early indications are that this hasn’t slowed down the London market.”

Exports of modern art, the category most likely to be affected by the new rules, jumped by 105 per cent from the previous year to £687m by May 2012, up from £335m the year before, and a quicker rise than the rest of the market, Sweet & Maxwell said.

The new research is based on data from the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.