Indigenous arts and crafts to Italy

(Last updated: 13 Jul 2007)

Trends and opportunities

The market

In recent years Australian indigenous art has gained a niche following in the Italian art market. With increasing numbers of Italians travelling to Asia and Australasia, combined with a general trend for ethnic art, Australian indigenous art has become increasingly fashionable in Italy.

There is already one specialist art gallery in northern Italy showing only Australian indigenous art, whilst others include regular indigenous art exhibitions for their established clientele.

Italians, because of their history of craftsmanship of handmade things, are highly appreciative and sophisticated consumers of artisan goods. Companies wishing to market handmade crafts and arts need to be aware of this and look at supplying only high quality well made goods.

Austrade Milan has found that there is a greater interest in original fine art pieces than for prints of Australian indigenous art.

Opportunities

Opportunities in Italy for indigenous arts and crafts exist for Australian companies in:

• Fine arts
• High quality handcrafts and didgeridoos
• Textiles

Tariffs, regulations and customs

Duties can depend on the type of work. Please contact Austrade Milan for further advice on this.

Italy operates a 20 per cent sales tax called IVA (similar to GST in Australia), this is added to all consumer items.

When exporting crafts and fine artworks to Italy it is advisable to use a specialised freight forwarding company.

All artworks must be accompanied by:

• A photo of goods
• A description of goods
• Price
• Artist details - stamped and cleared for export by Australian Customs

When artworks arrive in Italy they will be held by Italian Customs agents who then hold them for inspection by the superintendant/representative  of the 'Beni Culturali' this is a government agency for the protection of artworks.

They will examine the works, the description and accompanying photo to verify that they correspond to each other before the goods are released for their final destination in Italy.

Marketing your products and services

Market entry

A market visit or taking part in a contemporary art/craft event would be necessary to create a presence for your craft or artworks in Italy.

It maybe possible to identify an agent or distributor at one of the art or craft fairs held annually including: Mi-Art, MACEF (International exhibition for giftware and household items), or AF - L’Artigiano in Fiera (International Craft Selling Exhibition).

Professional marketing materials are required, eg. a CD catalogue, a website with online gallery.

While a gallery will probably want to see real life samples or examples of work it is also advisable to have a current online catalogue with high quality resolution images of your arts or crafts that potential galleries and agents can refer to in the first instance.

Any written material in Italian is definitely a great help and we have learnt that Italian collectors will tend to favour artworks by artists, which have been part of shows held in public galleries in Italy.

Distribution channels

Indigenous art and craft sales are usually facilitated through the fine art gallery network or gift/craft galleries and stores.

Ethnic arts and craft fall into two distinct categories in Italy. There are many cheaper imports, especially of crafts, from India and various Asian countries which sell through stores and also markets, these are generally sold for quite low prices and Australian companies approaching the Italian market will have to bear in mind they are also competing with these types of products.

Fine art galleries normally choose to represent original work and hold an annual show (sometimes more frequently), which they market to their clientele. They can either be interested in young and upcoming artists or some prefer older, more established artists; especially ones who may have works already showen in Italy as part of an museum or public art gallery show and which have had reviews or been written about in the Italian language.

Retail stores in Italy will often retail an item for two to two-and-a-half times its original value. Art galleries will often add up to 40 per cent on a fine art work (sometimes more depending on the artist) on the buying price.

Links and industry contacts

Art–related resources

Arte - www.arte.it
Artemotore - www.artemotore.com/galleriemappa.htm