Are Artists Brexiting London?

The British sculptor Antony Gormley is applying for German nationality for one reason. “I’m embarrassed about Brexit,” Gormley, who is half German, told The Guardian. “It’s a practical disaster, a betrayal of my parents’ and grandparents’ sacrifice to make a Europe that was not going to be divided again. It’s a tragedy.”

He might not be alone. “Art dealers warned last month that Britain’s reputation as a centre of the trade was fading, as it was revealed that the country’s share of the global art market fell by 3% last year to its lowest point in a decade,” reported the newspaper, and the blame is thought to lie chiefly with the increased paperwork and VAT levies resulting from Brexit. “Some galleries warn London will suffer as Paris did in the 1960s, when a complicated system of taxes and royalties on art sales drove a shift in business to America and Britain.”