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With the midnight bells on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump has posed a good threat to his threats to Canada, Mexico and China, the top three trading partners of the United States. China and Canada have reached retaliatory tariffs, with Mexico following Sunday.
If galleryists and art professionals hope to restore normality to the art world in 2025, then the trade war has mastered this idea. Dealers, museum directors, art fair directors and art shippers tell Artnews They are scrambling to adjust operations and understand the impact of tariffs on future sales and acquisitions. They say the tariffs make the cost and process of selling, transporting and displaying artworks more complex, expensive and uncertain, especially when galleries spend months planning their participation in New York art fairs such as art fairs.
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“It won’t be good for sales.” Artnews. “People are certainly not so keen on buying works.”
Mia Nielsen, Toronto Art Director Mia Nielsen, Canada’s only International Art Fair director, told “We are looking at taxes that have never been seen in this industry before.” Artnews.
Toronto dealer Stephen Bulger told Artnews Confirmed that he canceled a solo speech to Canadian artists on Aipad Fair in New York next month due to new tariffs. “What’s going to fall off your next shoe?”
Under the United States’ unified tariff plan, artworks, antiques and collectors’ works were previously tax-free. But as of midnight on March 4, the United States officially implemented 25% tariffs all Imports from Canada and Mexico, and additional tariffs on all imports from China from existing responsibilities. These tariffs are taxes paid by importers. Import tariffs for Canada and Mexico were previously suspended for 30 days on February 3, while the Biden administration’s tariff rate ranged from 7.5% to 100% based on China.
Canada and China have also implemented various anti-elections against the United States. The latest list of Canadian violations against the United States also includes “paintings, drawings and pastels performed entirely by hand”, as well as prints and photography of all types. It does not include “hand-drawn plans and drawings for engineering, architectural and other purposes.”
While there is currently an example on import tariffs for artworks from China and Hong Kong to the US, many art supplies, business supplies, electronics, lumber (art crates and stretcher bars), event supplies, and inexpensive art-related merchandise (tote bags, sweatshirts, T-shirts, socks, umbrellas, and toys) manufactured in China will still be subject to the new 10 percent tariff if they are.
Art transport and shipping prices in North America will also rise due to large imports and exports between wood (crates and stretcher rods), crude oil and a large amount of imports and exports between Canada, Mexico and the United States. On March 4, Ontario also announced a 25% tariff on electricity in New York, Minnesota and Michigan.
On February 11, President Donald Trump also restored 25% steel tariffs and raised the tariffs on aluminum to 25%. Both materials are usually used in sculpture, storage shelving and in the exterior of art museums.
New tariffs have also exacerbated challenges for many art professionals as foreign exchange rates for the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso.
As of March 4, a job priced at $10,000 will cost $14,445, and MX $209,200 before the 25% tariff. But due to the tariffs, the cost of the balloon is $18,056.25 and MX $261,500. Then, in addition to that, there will be local, provincial and federal sales taxes. If the artwork was sold by American artists by Toronto’s Bulger’s Gallery, it also puts its uniform sales tax of 13%, pushing $10,000 in work toward a final price of CA CA 20,403.56.
Since November, the second Trump administration-led new tariffs have been a topic of concern for Canadian art dealers because the Canadian economy is closely related to the U.S. economy. But these tariffs will also affect American art dealers. Many dealers in the United States represent Canadian and Mexican artists, attend expos such as Zona Maco and Toronto, and sell to institutional clients and collectors in Canada and Mexico.
“The art market is a fragile ecosystem,” Mackenzie Sinclair, executive director of the Canadian Art Dealers Association (ADAC), said in a written statement by Mackenzie Sinclair, executive director of the Canadian Art Dealers Association (ADAC). Artnews. “Any change will lead to unpredictable consequences and have a volatile impact in our department.”
At least one agency has inventory before the midnight deadline. According to a spokesman, the Ontario Art Gallery (AGO) in Toronto purchased $1 million in art from galleries in New York and Los Angeles during a 30-day halted tariffs between Canada and the United States.
Former Director and CEO Stephan Jost Artnews. “While I’m passionate about Canadians buying Canadian art, I’m also keenly aware that Canadian artists deserve global markets and audiences.”
Meanwhile, according to ADAC, about 76 Canadian art dealers attended 28 art fairs in the United States in 2024. Last year, 14 American galleries were exhibited in the United States at two expos in Canada.
Galleryists are still figuring out what new tariffs mean in the future to attend international art fairs, even if increased exposure could change careers.
In 2023, Daniel Faria Gallery exhibits a solo booth for Toronto-focused American artist June Clark. The booth is even in New York Times. “It’s recognized for her career as well as in the U.S., Canada and abroad,” Faria said, adding that the attention from the press has led to sales of museums and collectors. Beth Rudin Dewoody, who appears on the list of Artnews’ top 200 collectors, gets metal sculpture Enough (from Perseverance Suite) Booth from Faria. “That was a critical moment, and it could only happen in New York,” Faria said.
Daniel Faria Gallery’s 2023 booth in Frieze, New York, which includes June Clark’s work. Photos of Silvia Ros. Courtesy of Daniel Faria Gallery.
Photos of Silvia Ros
Faria said the U.S. market has been “very important” to his business since its inception in 2011. The gallery presents its works in Basel Art, Basel Miami Beach and Armory performances and is committed to the upcoming Independent Art Fair in New York in May. But Faria is still figuring out how to adjust his business with new tariffs. He asked: “If we were to the American Fair, would we just show to artists living in Europe and then Canadians were not shown?”
Several sources mentioned that Canada’s campaigns called on citizens to avoid buying American products and travel to the United States. The movement is now spreading to the art market, the sources said.
“I think we all have to be honest and authentic, and Canadians are much less likely to buy American art and go to American Art Fairs,” said Nelson, noting that she observed that curators from collections of several major Canadian companies began attending for more than 15 years ago since December. “We’ve seen that because Trump was elected.”
The silver lining of tariffs could be an increase in domestic and international attention to Canadian and Mexican artists. During Art Week in Mexico City last month, local and international galleries highlighted Mexican and Latin American artists. It is not difficult to imagine the similar trends that continue in Toronto’s art this month or later this year. “When we look at these professional intermediate artists, their work is a wonderful value compared to their American counterparts,” Nelson said.
Even if tariffs between the United States and other countries are reduced in the future, efforts have been made to shift professional relations to the dependence of the U.S. art market, similar to the international security situation after President Trump stopped aid to Ukraine.
Before the tariffs were implemented, Nelson had just spent his final weeks in Mexico City, meeting local collectors and talking with galleries about connecting their art market with Canadian collaborators. “They want to enter a bigger market,” she said. “But they are also looking for alternatives in the United States.”
“If Americans just want to do it themselves, then you know, the world is a big place, right?” Burger said. “There are many different friendships and alliances that can form very quickly – they can form because we are in this economic war. During times of conflict, people have established fast friendships with people in similar situations. If that’s what the states want, it’s what they want.”
