A constellation of recent discussions relating to art and artifact collections management.
The SML Art Market Salary Report, 2022
Sophie Macpherson Ltd is a global art market recruiting firm with offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Their annual salary report contributes to the wider conversations around pay transparency based on data from their own placements. Note that the report does not contain information on museums. Of course, the American Alliance of Museums has one from 2017 that you can purchase and the Association of Art Museum Directors has one.
You can also hear their managing director, Rosie Allan, speak about the report here on the ArtTactic podcast.
The report lands in a climate of continued labor disputes, a larger return to pre-pandemic levels of work, and the New York wage transparency law requiring all job posts to contain a reasonable salary range.
I want to drop a pin on a couple of things.
The US employment market is growing, with increased demand for exceptional talent beyond New York. A 200% increase in US searches managed by SML outside of New York speaks to a market currently going from strength to strength. Los Angeles stands out as a particular area of focus.
I bring from this a sense that one can make a good living in the area, especially in the United States; however the distribution of the money varies wildly. For example, to receive better pay, one might have to move to the commercial side.
Deaccessioning at the Whitney?
Should we care? Should we care because it is a work by Edward Hopper? Is this only a headline because it is a major museum selling work by major artists?
Swiss Customs Duties for Works of Art?
The Swiss government asked a number of art museums to exhibit their tax-exempt works of art imported from abroad or risk paying tax on them. Or did they?
They quickly changed course because…it is Switzerland! The land of tax-free anonymity.
“So if a museum bought a Picasso painting in France in 1960 for 100,000 francs that is worth 10 million francs today, the museum would have to pay 770,000 francs at the current tax rate of 7.7 percent. No Swiss art institution can afford that.”
On the other hand…
However, she noted, “the article doesn’t say whether the customs administration will take back the orders that they sent the different museums. Maybe they’re just in the process of clarifying what exactly is required from the museums. It simply mentions the museums are allowed to store art, so I think there is still the issue as to what exactly that entails.”
