Industry insiders say reducing GST will boost Singapore's chances of becoming the next Asian art hub.
TOKYO – If Singapore were to waive GST on art sales, it would become a real contender on a pan-Asia level “overnight”.
“In Hong Kong, people can freely hang their work and enjoy it at home or wherever they want to put it without paying tax. You have to pay a 9 per cent tax for the privilege to do that in Singapore. It comes up to quite a lot.” Already, from July 5 to 7, 69 galleries and 18,190 visitors converged in Yokohama, about half an hour’s drive from Tokyo, to test the thesis that Tokyo could be one of Asia’s new alternative hubs.
Blue-chip gallery Pace Gallery’s chief executive Marc Glimcher compared the crossroads Asia now faces with that of London after Brexit in 2020. In just two years, its art auction turnover has increased more than four times, from $57.8 million to $237 million, and blue-chip galleries, including White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac, have been clamouring to expand in Seoul.
He used to have a gallery in Hong Kong that was very popular among international clients for this reason, though he shut it after feeling the pressure to make its programming more Chinese. With generational wealth being passed down, now is the time for Singapore to act to give a boost to its local collectors, he believes. For him, Japan already has the advantage over Singapore by having cultural cachet and a more established – and larger – domestic collector base, even if its collectors are still more focused on Japanese art.
Arts Nominated MP Usha Chandradas says tax exemption on the sales of Singapore artists’ works can better support the local arts community. PHOTO: CHANDRADAS USHA RANEE “Coming from the perspective that we do try to create good competitive policies in any industry that we want to bolster, why can’t we do so for the arts as well? We put all this money into growing the industry, but you have to make sure that the general trading environment is conducive and welcoming,” she said. She added that, anecdotally, some galleries in Singapore have had to absorb GST when buyers prefer not to pay.
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