Hundreds of galleries across Spain will strike next week to protest 21% tax on art

Next week, around 200 contemporary art galleries across Spain will close their doors to the public. The discrepancy “places us in a position of complete irrelevance,” Domènech says, contending that Spanish galleries’ markedly higher VAT makes them less attractive to clients and collectors. “Without galleries artists lack the support needed to give visibility to their work,” says Borja Díaz Mengotti, the director of The Goma in Madrid. For the country’s hundreds of local art galleries, the consequences are very real. Last year, more than 70 Spanish gallerists turned out the lights in their stands to protest of the 21% VAT.