My Word - Winter 2025

First quarter of 2025 and we are confronted with change everywhere. Our friends at the Cultural Property Newsletter have made some analysis on the arts during Trump's Administration. Looks like the EU import changes will be implemented in May. At this point it is difficult to understand fully the impact to dealers and auction houses. Elon Musk predicted by the end of 2026 our lives would be fundamentally changed by artificial intelligence. ArtTrak is a believer and we have given you some tools to move into this new world. At the moment and I say at th moment because these companies keep leapfrogging each other with new technology, we recommend Elon's Grok, Preplexity.ai and ChatGBT. In our next issue we will have some further recommendations from two experts in the field.

The re-opening of the Met’s African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian galleries is a very big deal in May which New York’s ethnographic dealers plan to celebrate with exhibitions and social events. We are excited for New York’s dealers but less so for what appears to be a very sterile installation at the Met. Can’t wait to see the reviews from the “experts”.

I hope you enjoy Ingo Barlovic's Youtube videos on the tribal art fairs at Maastricht (Netherlands) and BRAFA (Bruseels). Ingo is clearly passionate about the art with no axes to grind. His tour with infectious enthusiasm is refreshing at a time when it sometimes appears that museums and collectors are focused on everything but the art.

And speaking of focus ArtTrak has been tied up with some major that have partially derailed progress on the YouTube channel and our art panels. We will be back on track soon.

We are looking for more interns to join us on the journey.