Le Freeport Luxembourg. Logistique, pure valeur et volatilisation de l’œuvre d’art

In the last decade, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, artwork has become a successful financial asset. Improved logistical techniques and specific legal provisions (as the evergrowing spread of Free Economic Zones) have fostered this evolution. Created in 2014, Le Freeport Luxembourg is the first free zone in Luxembourg. It follows the exemple of the Geneva and Singapore freeports. Its creation coincides with the attempt to diversify the country’s national economy, and to develop a niche where finance, art, and logistics meet. The empirical analysis comprehends a document analysis, fieldwork (incl. photographs) and three semi-structured interviews with experts working at the Freeport Luxembourg. The contribution investigates how Le Freeport territorializes immaterial flows, thus imposing practices and contributing to establishing Luxembourg as a prominent node of the international art market. The paper demonstrates how this territorialization results into the enclaving of the building and into the dematerialization of artwork and valuables. While other similar freeports are in project around the world (Dubai, Shangai), this case study investigates an emerging trend which exemplifies, and takes to extremes, the functioning of the current logistical organization.