US tax reform to suppress important art market loophole
As part of the House GOP tax bill released by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, the US art market might have to wave goodbye to the 1031 like-kind exchange, a tax loophole that has fueled the US market since the 1980s, when artwork prices soared.
Section 1031 allows “investors to defer paying capital gains taxes on the sale of certain assets, if they roll the profit back into a similar type of business or investment”, and it has widely been used by collectors to avoid paying taxes on the sale of their artworks. Should the new tax bill pass, artworks will no longer be eligible for the 1031 like-kind exchange as of January 1, 2018. More via Bloomberg.
Artissima announces awardees of 2017 issue of prizes
British artist Cally Spooner won the art fair’s Illy Present Future Prize, recognizing the work of an emerging artist on show at the fair. Spooner’s work was presented at Artissima by GB Agency, and she was chosen by a jury consisting of SculptureCenter executive director and curator Mary Ceruti, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and GAM Torino director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Steirischer Herbst festival curator Luigi Fassi.
Cally Spooner, courtesy Whitechapel gallery.
The Fondazione Ettore Fico Prize, recognizing artists focusing on the use of new expressive media, went to David Douard (Chantal Crousel Gallery), the Refresh Irinox Prize for the new Disegni (Drawings) section was awarded to David Haines (Upstream Gallery), Theo Drebbel (Viasaterna Gallery) was awarded the CARIOCA KIDS prize for artists in the New Entries section, Rokni Haerizadeh (Isabelle van den Eynde Gallery) won the first OGR Award, sponsored by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, artist Sári Ember (Ani Molnár Gallery) was awarded the first edition of the Campari Art Prize, reserved for artists under 35, whilst the Sardi per l’Arte Back to the Future Prize went to Loevenbruck Gallery.
Sotheby’s releases third quarter results
Although the auction house recorded a net loss of $23.5 million, results were better than expected; a year ago, the company posted a net loss of $54.5 million over the same period.
Courtesy Sotheby's.
Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith attributed the boost to the shift in scheduling of the Hong Kong auction house sales, which put some of the fall auctions in the third quarter; moreover, a five-day series of auctions in Hong Kong this fall realized $404 million, up 42% from last year. Sotheby’s London sales during Frieze Art Fair also saw a 10% increase in profit as compared to 2016. Read more on artnet news.
Queer|Art partners with HBO to launch Queer|Art|Prize
The New York-based nonprofit organization has launched its first annual Queer|Art|Prize in collaboration with HBO. The first edition’s awardees were announced as photographer Catherine Opie and multimedia artist Reina Gossett, who won the Sustained Achievement award and the Recent Work award, respectively. Each will receive $10,000. Both awardees addressed the crowds after the ceremony, highlighting the importance of queer art and the LGBTQ movement, “queer art to me is about really centering the people and the voices that are most vulnerable, the people who history often forgets”, said Gossett. More via Artforum.
Catherine Opie, courtesy Catherine Opie studio.
