A week ago, Swiss customs authorities sounded the alarm bells in the museum world by sending letters to several Swiss museums informing them of tightened and apparently new regulations governing the compulsory exhibition of works imported into the country in tax free.
After a wave of concern and confusion, the authorities have now put the brakes on their efforts and informed some of these museums, as well as experts and the media, that the changes will not be implemented and that museums will still receive the same relief. long-standing taxes for internationally imported work.
While most institutions breathe a sigh of relief, other experts and observers are still wondering about the significance of the recent chain of events.
On April 8, publication in German language Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) indicated that since the beginning of the calendar year, several customs offices in German-speaking Switzerland had been send letters to several art museums. The letters reportedly informed museums that they would have to permanently exhibit their works of art imported from abroad under the tax-exempt status.
According to the report, if museums failed to meet specifications, customs threatened to charge additional import duties at the current market value. Notably, only museums in German-speaking Switzerland, not French-speaking Switzerland, received the letter, which several Swiss lawyers we spoke to confirmed.
Unsurprisingly, the news has alarmed museums, many of which are already facing serious financial challenges and cannot afford additional high tax bills. As NZZ Thus, if a museum bought a painting by Picasso in France in 1960 for 100,000 francs which is worth 10 million francs today, the museum would have to pay 770,000 francs at the current tax rate of 7.7%. No Swiss art institution can afford it.
As Tobia Bezzola, president of the Swiss section of the International Association of Museums (ICOM), put it NZZ“Switzerland is a relatively small country. Its art museums have always collected internationally. It represents the cosmopolitanism of the country. Bezzola did not immediately respond to request for comment.
“It is clear that there is a United Nations convention from 1950 which entered into force in 1953 in Switzerland,” Peter Mosimann, lawyer and former director of the Kunstmuseum Basel (from 2008 to 2018), told Artnet News during an interview. ‘a telephone interview.
Mosimann urged his friends and associates to take the letter seriously and said the resulting pressure likely helped bring about the reversal. Last week, the museums made the intervention at the office of the federal office of culture, which in turn made an intervention at the finance department, Mosimann clarified. “It’s quite clear that they took it down,” he added.
According to a NZZ update published in the April 16 print edition, a so-called potential “catastrophe” has been averted.
“The Federal Office of Customs and Border Security has stopped the action, as reported by the Keystone-SDA news agency. Accordingly, the office announced that it was not its intention to require a permanent exhibition of tax-free imported works of art. The storage of such objects is permitted. Existing practice will not be changed.
However, others are still shaken by the communication.
“I read in the newspapers yesterday that Customs has in fact reversed its original decision not to discontinue the current practice of allowing museums to acquire works of art from abroad duty free. import tax,” lawyer Anne Laure Bandle said in a telephone interview. with Artnet News.
However, she notes, “the article does not say whether the customs administration will resume the orders it has sent to the various museums. Maybe they are just clarifying what exactly is required of museums. It just mentions that museums are allowed to store works of art, so I think there’s always the question of what exactly that entails.
None of the museums we contacted for comment had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
NZZ said before the news of the withdrawal: ‘Everyone is silent out of sheer fear: neither in Basel, nor in Winterthur, Zurich or elsewhere, do Swiss art museums want to comment on the latest request from Swiss customs, ‘so as not to jeopardize the talks with the customs authorities at this stage,” according to a spokeswoman for the Kunstmuseum Basel. The situation is too delicate for that.
Meanwhile, Artnet News received a response this morning from Donatella Del Vecchio, spokeswoman for the country’s Federal Department of Finance (FDF).
Del Vecchio confirmed there was no official press release to provide an update on the situation, but said the department responded to several media inquiries made in the past week.
“We can confirm that the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) has sent letters to a number of museums and businesses such as galleries due to art and exhibit objects imported duty free. The applicable legal requirement was not clearly explained in the letters mentioned, which unfortunately led to misinterpretations. It was not the intention of FOCBS to require a permanent exhibition of art objects. Rather, it was a regular check on compliance with the conditions relating to the duty-free import of works of art and exhibits.
We asked art law expert Thomas Danziger for his opinion on the missive and the resulting inconvenience to authorities.
“The backtracking of the Swiss tax authorities is not surprising. The Swiss would be more inclined to ban fondue than to force their museums out of business,” Danziger said.
Del Vecchio said the tax exemption is tied to conditions that must be met even after the importation has taken place (eg, no transfer or sale). “The storage of duty-free imported items by the importer is of course permitted. Existing practice will not be changed. The FOCBS is responsible for monitoring compliance with these conditions. Such checks are also possible in the future.
In this case, she writes, “the action was stopped because the applicable provisions were not clearly specified in the letters mentioned. The museums and companies concerned have been informed of the rest of the procedure. She directed us to the the works of art page on the department’s website.
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