LINKS

• SPAIN/GERMANY. "The Spanish government will lose out collecting VAT from Spanish galleries becausesales will inevitably go to foreign galleries with considerably lowerVAT." Authorities say they will consider proposals to reduce VAT on cultural goods and services, which crucially include sales of works of art, from 21% ("the highest rate on the continent") to 13%.
  
  Meanwhile, German galleries and dealers have managed to thwart, at least for now, the European Commission's attempts to get Germany to increase the rate of VAT on sales of art from 12% to 19%.
 
• LONDON. "To say we can’t afford to have the arts as part of our lives is an admission of defeat as a nation and society" - Sir Nicholas Serota on how further reductions of public funding of arts organisations will put them at risk of closure. See what the anticipated spending cuts finally came in at here.
 
• USA. The Dan Flavin Estate's change of heart regarding posthumous productions of the conceptual artist's light sculptures raises interesting questions regarding the legality of doing so given the uncertainty of Flavin's wishes in this regard as well as the impact the decision may have on the market value of works created by Flavin in his lifetime.
 
• USA. Donn Zaretsky on how the Michigan attorney general is not the first AG  in recent times to confuse the normative and legal aspects of deaccessioning.