The French National Assembly adopted on December 22nd 1999 a draft authorising foreign auction houses to hold sales in France. Under the new law the monopoly held by French auctioneers regarding the organisation of sales in France will be suppressed and auction groups will be transformed into commercial concerns.
The new law will not be applied to sales on the Internet, the Culture ministry being determined to discuss this question separately when the National Assembly will discuss a draft regarding e-commerce in the months to come. Right-wing opposition parties opposed such decision stressing that such question should be urgently debated because sales on the Internet will soon create problems.
French auctioneers will share a 450 million francs (US $ 70 million) compensation as a result of the reform meaning that they will receive sums representing between 15 and 50% of the values of their firms.
Specialists wondered whether the reform would result in renewed activity for the 60,000 jobs of the French art market, which has a total annual turnover of $ 4,7 billion. The present fiscal regime, which includes a 5,5% VAT on purchases and a 3% levy for artists and the heirs of those who died after 1929, does not really allow such an opportunity. British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently warned France that an extension of this 3% levy on all EEC member States would endanger the European art market and give the U.S an advantageous position.
Many French MP's have shown concern about the fact that thousands of works of art were being exported annually especially via sales in New York, Monaco and Geneva. They said that the present fiscal system did not allow the return of works to France. They added that the most powerful nations, notably the United States, were plundering the wealth of the weaker ones, notably France and Italy, which have the big reservoirs of works.
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