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As the clock struck midnight on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump made good on his threat to impose widespread tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, the US’s top three trading partners. China and Canda have already instituted retaliatory tariffs, with Mexico to follow as soon as Sunday.
If gallerists and art professionals were hoping 2025 would be a return to normalcy for the art world, the trade war has scuppered that notion. Dealers, museum directors, art fair directors, and art shippers told ARTnews that they are scrambling to adjust operations and understand the impact of the tariffs on future sales and acquisitions. The tariffs, they said, make the cost and process of selling, transporting, and exhibiting art significantly more complicated, expensive, and uncertain, especially after galleries spend months planning their participation in art fairs like Art Basel Hong Kong, Independent, and Frieze New York.
“It’s not gonna be very conducive to sales,” Gander & White New York director Francis Petit told ARTnews. “People won’t be so keen on on buying pieces, that’s for sure.”
“We’re looking at taxes that have never existed in this industry before,” Mia Nielsen, director of Art Toronto, Canada’s only international art fair, told ARTnews.
“I can’t quite wrap my head around all of it,” Toronto dealer Stephen Bulger told ARTnews after confirming he had canceled a solo presentation for a Canadian artist at the AIPAD fair in New York next month due to the new tariffs. “What’s the next shoe that’s going to drop?”
Works of art, antiques, and collector’s items were previously duty-free under the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule. But as of midnight on March 4, the US officially implemented tariffs of 25 percent on all imports from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional tariff of 10 percent for all imports from China on top of existing duties. These tariffs are taxes paid by importers. The import tariffs for Canada and Mexico had previously been suspended for 30 days on February 3, and tariff rates for China under the Biden administration varied from 7.5 percent to 100 percent.
Canada and China have also implemented a variety of counter-tariffs against the US. Canada’s updated list of counter-tariffs against the US also includes “paintings, drawings and pastels, executed entirely by hand,” as well as all types of prints and photography. It does not include “hand-drawn plans and drawings used for engineering, architecture, and other purposes,” however.
While there is currently an exemption on import tariffs for artworks from China and Hong Kong to the US, many art supplies, business supplies, electronics, lumber (art crates and stretcher bars), event supplies, and inexpensive art-related merchandise (tote bags, sweatshirts, T-shirts, socks, umbrellas, and toys) manufactured in China will still be subject to the new 10 percent tariff if they are imported to the US.
North American prices for art shipping and transportation are also expected to rise due to the large import and export volumes of lumber (crates and stretcher bars), crude oil, and motor vehicle parts between Canada, Mexico, and the US. On March 4, the province of Ontario also announced a 25 percent tariff on electricity to New York, Minnesota, and Michigan.
On February 11, President Donald Trump also reinstated 25 percent tariffs on steel and raised tariffs to 25 percent on aluminum. Both materials are often used in sculptures, storage shelving, and the exteriors of art museums.
The new tariffs also compound challenges for many art professionals due to weak foreign exchange rates for Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos.
As of March 4, a work priced at US$10,000 would cost CA$14,445 and MX$209,200 before the 25 percent tariff. But with the tariff, its cost balloons to CA$18,056.25 and MX$261,500. Then, there would be local, provincial and federal sales taxes on top of that, too. If that artwork was by an American artist and sold by Bulger’s gallery in Toronto, it would also have a harmonized sales tax of 13 percent, pushing that US$10,000 work to a final price of CA$20,403.56.
New tariffs under a second Trump administration have been a topic of concern for Canadian art dealers since November because the Canadian economy is so closely tied to that of the US. But these tariffs also affect American art dealers. Many dealers in the US represent Canadian and Mexican artists, participate in fairs such as Zona Maco and Art Toronto, and sell to institutional clients and collectors in Canada and Mexico.
“The art market is a fragile ecosystem,” Mackenzie Sinclair, executive director of the Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC), said in a written statement to ARTnews. “Any change can cause unforeseen consequences with a rippling impact across our sector.”
At least one institution stocked up in advance of the midnight deadline. During the 30-day pause in tariffs between Canada and the US, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto purchased $1 million in art from galleries in New York and Los Angeles, according to a spokesperson, who declined to give further details.
“High tariffs will impact what art is purchased and where it is purchased,” AGO director and CEO Stephan Jost said in a written statement to ARTnews. “While I am enthusiastic about Canadians buying Canadian art, I am also keenly aware that Canadian artists deserve a global market and audience.”
Meanwhile, according to the ADAC, around 76 Canadian art dealers participated in 28 art fairs in the US in 2024. During two fairs in Canada last year, there were 14 US galleries exhibiting.
Gallerists are still figuring out what the new tariffs will mean in terms of future participation at international art fairs, even though the increased exposure can be career-changing.
In 2023, Daniel Faria Gallery exhibited a solo booth focused on the Toronto-based American artist June Clark at Frieze New York; the booth even got a mention in the New York Times. “That is huge for her career and for getting recognition in the US, in Canada and abroad,” Faria said, adding that the press attention led to sales with museums and collectors. Beth Rudin DeWoody, who appears on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, acquired the metal sculpture Enough (from the Perseverance Suite) from Faria’s booth. “That was such a pivotal moment, and that could have only happened in New York,” Faria said.
Faria said that the US market has been “super important” to his business since he started in 2011. The gallery has shown works at Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, and the Armory Show, and is committed to participating at the upcoming Independent art fair in New York in May. However, Faria is still figuring out how to adjust his operations with the new tariffs. “If we do an American fair,” he asked, “do we just show artists who live in Europe, and then the Canadians don’t get shown?”
Multiple sources mentioned Canada’s campaign calling on citizens to avoid buying American products and travel to the US. That campaign, these sources said, is now spreading to the art market.
“I think we all have to be, you know, honest and real that Canadians are going to be far less likely to buy American art and travel to American art fairs,” Nielsen said, noting she observed that curators from several major corporate collections in Canada did not attend Art Basel Miami Beach last December for the first time since she began attending the fair more than 15 years ago. “We’re already seeing this because Trump was elected.”
One silver lining to the tariffs may be the increased domestic and international attention on Canadian and Mexican artists. At last month’s art week in Mexico City, local and international galleries heavily emphasized Mexican and Latin American artists. It’s not hard to imagine an analagous trend continuing this month in Hong Kong, or at later this year at Art Toronto. “When we look at these mid-career artists, their work is a fantastic value compared to their US counterparts,” Nielsen said.
Even if the tariffs between the US and other countries are reduced in the future, there are already efforts to shift professional relationships to be less dependent on the US art market, similar to the situation in international security after President Trump paused aid to Ukraine.
Before the implementation of the tariffs, Nielsen had just spent the last several weeks in Mexico City, meeting local collectors and speaking with galleries about connecting its art market to Canadian collaborators. “They want access to bigger markets,” she said. “But they’re also looking for alternatives to America.”
“If the Americans just want to be by themselves, then you know, the world is a big place, right?” Bulger said. “There are lots of different friendships and alliances that can form really quickly—they might form because we’re in this economic war. In times of strife, people develop fast friendships with people that are in similar circumstances. If that’s what the States wants, that’s what they’re going to get.”