Galleries worldwide face 70% income crash due to coronavirus

Galleries around the world are expecting to lose an average of 72% of their annual revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new survey by The Art Newspaper and the economist Rachel Pownall, a professor of finance at the University of Maastricht. However, dealers’ outlooks vary from region to region: those in the UK have the bleakest view, forecasting the highest drop in their financial activity (79%), followed by Asia (77%), North America (71%) and the rest of Europe (66%). The survey, carried out between 10 and 20 April when much of the world was under lockdown, tracked the impact of the pandemic on 236 international art and antiques dealers and galleries.

Around a third of galleries globally (33.9%) do not expect to survive the crisis, the survey also found. Emphasising the vulnerability of smaller businesses, dealerships with 5-9 employees reported the lowest likely chance of survival (62%), while larger galleries with more than ten employees were more optimistic, with three-quarters expecting to weather the crisis.
Courtesy of The Art Newspaper
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