Dealers and auctioneers take up the cudgel over Artist’s Resale Right

EVIDENCE that the trade is not taking the introduction of the beefed up Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) lightly is beginning to emerge.

What is interesting now is that the charge is being led by individual dealers and auctioneers rather than trade associations and industry lobbyists.

A number of letters raising various objections appear among this week's letters in the printed ATG newspaper. One of them also announces the launch of an online petition, deploring "the debilitating effect" its extension to the estates of artists who have been dead for less than 70 years "will have on the majority of art businesses in the UK".

It highlights the plight of small art dealers, who are likely to absorb the 4% levy at both ends, leaving them with an 8% additional tax on transactions.

The petition calls upon the Government:

(a) to recognise this impact on small businesses by increasing from €1000 to €3000 the threshold above which the Right is collected in the UK, as allowed under the European Artist's Resale Right Directive; and

(b) to exert pressure on the European Commission to change the Directive so that it is less damaging to the art market, particularly the market in works by deceased artists.