ARTnews Prime 200 collectors Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, and Alice Walton misplaced billions on March 7 and March 10 after inventory market sell-offs motivated by investor considerations concerning the new Trump tariffs and a possible international recession.
By the tip of the buying and selling day Friday, the main US indices had fallen by greater than 2 p.c for the week and the S&P 500 fell 3.1 p.c, the biggest drop since September, in accordance with NPR. On March 10, the Wall Avenue Journal reported the Nasdaq Composite fell 4 p.c.
As of finish of day Monday, 24 of the 30 Prime 200 collectors which might be additionally presently on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, noticed main losses, in accordance with information evaluation by ARTnews. For 11 of these 30 billionaire artwork collectors, the 2 days of losses from the inventory market lowered their complete internet value by 3 p.c or extra.
Alice Walton—the founding father of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Artwork, chairman of the Artwork Bridges Basis, and heiress to the Walmart fortune—had the biggest 2-day loss at greater than $6.5 billion, and the biggest discount in her internet value, 7 p.c, all the way down to $107 billion.
Throughout the identical two-day interval, there have been additionally ten-figure declines within the internet worths of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (-$5.83 billion), LVMH proprietor Bernard Arnault (-$5.3 billion) Uniqlo CEO Tadashi Yanai (-$1.7 billion), and SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner (-$1.5 billion).
The inventory market declines additionally resulted in losses exceeding $500 million for Chanel chairperson Alain Wertheimer, HCL Enterprise chairperson Shiv Nadar, KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, and former KKR CEO George Roberts.
The eight billionaire Prime 200 collectors whose year-to-date losses exceeded $1 billion when the markets closed on March 10 have been Bezos (-$22.5 billion), Nadar (-$7.5 billion), Reliance Industries chair Mukesh Ambani (-$3.86 billion), Yanai (-$3.75 billion), Roberts (-$3.3 billion), Kravis (-$3 billion), Walton (-$2 billion), and former Apollo World Administration CEO Leon Black (-$1.54 billion).
Whereas all 30 billionaires on the 2024 Prime 200 listing nonetheless have complete internet worths exceeding $7 billion, the inventory market losses may add to considerations of an already difficult artwork market as a result of this 12 months’s fires in Los Angeles, ongoing geopolitical conflicts, in addition to the impression of the brand new tariffs the Trump administration has applied towards imports from China, Hong Kong, Canada and Mexico.
Whereas images and artworks from these international locations are presently exempt from new import tariffs (as of March 11), the exemption continues to be topic to interpretation by US Customs and Border Patrol officers. Canada has additionally instituted counter-tariffs of 25 p.c on images, prints, in addition to “Work, drawings and pastels, executed completely by hand” apart from “architectural, engineering, industrial, business topographical or different functions.” Artwork establishments, public sale homes and galleries in New York will even see larger vitality costs as a result of a 25 p.c surcharge on electrical energy exports from the province of Ontario.
Artwork professionals are additionally nonetheless scrambling to take care of elevated prices as a result of tariffs on imports of lumber, crude oil, automobile components, electronics, workplace provides, produce, hospitality provides, in addition to arts-related merchandise (together with tote baggage, toys, t-shirts and magnets).
On March 11, President Donald Trump posted on Fact Social that he would retaliate towards Ontario’s counter-tariffs on electrical energy by growing the tariff on metal and aluminum imported from Canada from 25 p.c to 50 p.c and it could go into impact Wednesday. President Trump additionally mentioned that if Canada didn’t drop “different egregious, very long time Tariffs [sic]”, he would considerably improve tariffs on automobiles coming into the US.
President Trump additionally reiterated that Canada ought to develop into the 51st state, an concept that has been rejected by 85 p.c of Canadians in a latest ballot, and is ridiculous for an extended listing of causes this Canadian reporter doesn’t need to get into.
Replace: March 12, 2025: Ontario mentioned it could droop its 25% surcharge on electrical energy exports after Trump’s social media put up and after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick agreed to renewed commerce talks, in accordance with CNBC. White Home Peter Navarro additionally confirmed to CNBC that Trump wouldn’t transfer ahead with the extra 25% tariff on metal and aluminum that he had threatened to implement towards Canada beginning on March 12.
Replace: March 12, 2025: A earlier model of this story misreported the single-day losses of a number of Prime 200 collectors on the finish of the buying and selling day on March 7, 2025. ARTnews regrets the errors.
