On February 10 Wagner Lungov, current Director and owner of the Galeria Central in São Paulo, was picked as the new President of the Associação Brasileira de Arte Contemporânea (ABACT). Lungov replaces Eliana Finkelstein, co-director of the Galeria Vermelho, who completed her role as president of the association for the last years and who will now become its vice-president. ABACT is a non-profit organization created in 2007 that currently includes 46 galleries in the primary market located in 6 states in Brazil and that represent more than 1,000 contemporary artists. ABACT's mission is to expand cultural exchange and the promotion of actions geared toward the professionalization and bureaucratization of the art market in Brazil as it underlines the various stages of production and their authors. ABACT is currently focusing on widening the base of collectors in Brazil and resuming negotiations with the Brazilian government to reduce the tax rate on works of art, as this currently oscillates between 50 and 85 percent, one of the highest in the world. The current context in the Brazilian cultural scene is, for the time being, immersed in a debate, after the Instituto Brasileiro de Museus of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture caused controversy when it decreed that private works of art could be declared as public works in Brazil. In an interview Lungov gave to a Brazilian newspaper, he said that the discussion was misinterpreted and he pledges to fight because decreed a demotivating factor for the entrance of new collectors in the Brazilian Marked. More information is available at:
http://abact.com.br/ Source: ABACT and Folha de São Paulo.