After a graphic and technical overhaul, the online sales site for art, paintings, paintings, and artistic walls will be available on September 1, 2022. In addition, the new collection is being created.

Would you like more information or benefit from private sales? Contact us.

Some preview images:

The new collections are aimed at all lovers of large-format contemporary art. Individuals, companies, foundations, museums… all concerned!

ART, tax exemption. Shall we talk about it?

By introducing Art into your workspace, we allow you to modernize your image and create connection, meaning and human relationships, engaging your customers as well as your partners and collaborators.

We truly offer companies an innovative and cost-effective way to obtain works of art by improving their work environment and that of their employees.

Around an artist or a work, the values conveyed by your artistic choices will form the basis of your strategy. You will use Art as a real creative communication tool and enhance your institutional brand image.

Ownership of works of art: a tax loophole for companies

In addition, for companies, it is possible to acquire property and benefit from a tax exemption. Those who purchase original works by living artists between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2022 to exhibit them in a place accessible to the public or to their employees may deduct in equal fractions, from their taxable income for the year of acquisition and the following four years, the sum corresponding to the purchase price of their profit. A condition to benefit from this advantage: you must exhibit them to the public and/or in your company for 5 years. Since 1 January 2003, the acquisition of musical instruments intended to be loaned to artists has followed the same regime.

Tax deduction for the purchase of works of art

Verified on 18 November 2020 – Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

A company that buys original works by living artists to exhibit them to the public can deduct the purchase price from its taxable income. This is also the case for the purchase of musical instruments to be loaned to artists. However, these works or instruments must meet certain conditions.

Which companies are concerned?

• Company subject to corporate income tax (by operation of law or by option)
• Sole proprietorship subject to income tax in the BIC category

Careful

The deduction system requires that the deductible purchase price be recorded in a special reserve account on the liabilities side of the company’s balance sheet. This mainly excludes the liberal professions, which do not have the option of creating an account of this nature on the liabilities side of their balance sheet.

What are the works and instruments that allow deduction?

Original work by a living artist

To benefit from the deduction, the company must exhibit the work of art in a place accessible free of charge to the public or employees, except in their offices, for 5 years. This period corresponds to the year of acquisition and the following 4 years.

The works concerned are the following:

• Paintings, painting, drawing, watercolour, gouache, pastel, monotype, entirely executed by the artist’s hand
• Engraving, print and lithograph, printed in limited numbers directly from plates entirely hand-executed by the artist. The technique or material used is irrelevant, except for any mechanical or photomechanical process
• Production of statuary art or sculpture in all materials and assembly, as long as this production and assembly are executed entirely by the hand of the artist. Jewellery, goldsmith’s and jewellery’s items are excluded.
• Sculpture cast in a limited edition of 8 copies and controlled by the artist or his beneficiaries
• Handmade tapestry, based on original cartoons provided by the artist, limited to 8 copies
• Unique example of ceramics, entirely executed by the artist’s hand and signed by him
• Enamel on copper, entirely executed by hand, within the limit of 8 numbered copies and bearing the artist’s signature. Jewellery, goldsmith’s and jewellery’s items are excluded.
• Photograph taken by the artist, printed by him or under his control, signed and numbered within the limit of 30 copies, all formats and media combined.

Works purchased for resale are part of the company’s inventory (dealers, art galleries, or any company involved in the art transactions) and are not eligible for the deduction.

The artist must be alive at the time of the purchase of the work. The company must be able to justify the existence of the artist on the date of acquisition.

The exhibition of the work can be carried out in the following places and situations:

• Company premises, provided that they are actually accessible to the public or to employees
• Events organised by the company or by a museum, a local authority or a public establishment to which the property has been entrusted
• Museum to which the property is deposited
• Region, department, municipality or one of their public establishments or a public scientific, cultural or professional establishment

The exhibition must be permanent (for the required 5 years), and not held on the occasion of one-off events (temporary exhibition, seasonal festival, in particular).

Regardless of the conditions of public exposure adopted by the company, the public must be informed of the exhibition place and its possibility of access to the property. The company must therefore communicate the appropriate information to the public. It must do so by attractive indications on the place of the exhibition itself and by all promotional means adapted to the importance of the work.

How to make the deduction?

The purchase price of the work of art (or instrument) can be deducted without accounting from the taxable result of the year of acquisition and the following 4 years. This is done in equal fractions, i.e. 1/5th⁽20%) each year.

The basis of the deduction is the cost price of the work or instrument, corresponding to the original value. The original value corresponds to its purchase price, plus any ancillary costs and minus the recoverable VAT.

The additional costs paid when the work of art or instrument is acquired (commissions paid to intermediaries, for example) are deducted directly from the total taxable income before the tax is calculated. They are not taken into account in the deduction base.

The sums are deductible up to a limit of €10,000 or €5 (per thousand) of the turnover excluding tax when the latter amount is higher, minus the total payments made in respect of sponsorship.

If the fraction of the purchase price cannot be fully deducted for a year, the remaining excess is lost. It cannot be carried forward to be deducted to a future year.

For companies subject to corporate income tax (CIT) or income tax in respect of BICs, the sums must be deducted from the result of the financial year:

• The company that falls under the normal real tax regime must deduct them on table n°2058-A (cerfa n°10951), line XG
• The company that is placed under the simplified tax regime must deduct them on table n°2033-B (cerfa n°10957)

Any deduction not made by the company for a year is definitively lost.

The company must enter an amount equal to the deduction in a special reserve account, shown on the liabilities side of the balance sheet.

In the following cases, this amount must be reintegrated into the taxable result on a non-accounting basis:

• Change of use (the work is no longer on display to the public or the instrument is no longer on loan)
• Disposal of the work or instrument (the asset is removed from the fixed asset)
• Withdrawal from the reserve account (the withdrawal of all or part of the sums allocated to the special reserve account leads to a reintegration of the sums deducted into taxable profits at the ordinary rate)

The company may make a provision for depreciation when the loss in value of the work exceeds the amount of the deductions already made.