Artists Resale Right

I have recently been visited in London by an American-based auctioneer who is looking for sporting paintings for his upcoming sales in Kentucky in the New Year.

The majority of art dealers in the secondary market probably agree with Jeremy Taylor’s views on the Artist’s Resale Right (Letters, ATG No 2579) and had hoped that the Ivor Braka case (News, ATG No 2581) would be the start of a conversation.

Art dealer Ivor Braka has agreed an out of court settlement to pay Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) royalties in the UK.

Your article in ATG No 2576 speculates that London and the UK might lose their prominence if the major antiques fairs close down.

Your report that the UK’s share of the global art market has declined blames VAT and Brexit for this (ATG No 2537), but fails to mention the effect of Artist's Resale Right which is probably the real reason for the current decline.

I’d like to lend my support to Ivor Braka in his brave and principled decision to fight the parasitic bureaucracies of the ARR (front page, ATG No 2536).

The UK government has confirmed to ATG that it has “no plans to make changes to either the rates of Artist’s Resale Right that are applied or how the levy operates” following the post-Brexit trade deal agreed with the EU.

MADAM – I do not see the controversy around ARR within the art market going away as long as it is in existence – because its existence is so peculiar.

The UK has agreed to follow the existing Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) regulations under the Brexit trade deal that came into effect earlier this month.

MADAM – When ARR was originally introduced we were told that since the UK was in the Common Market, we had to follow their rules.

MADAM – It’s good to see the Irish applying ARR as it was intended ie the seller pays and no charge on estate sales (ATG No 2409).

Further to our article in this section in last week’s issue about who pays Artist’s Resale Right and how it applies to sales in the UK where the seller is an artist’s estate, ATG contacted Ireland’s collecting body The Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation (IVARO) to clarify how this is dealt with in the Republic.

MADAM – Last year I bought a basket-case of a canvas from an artist’s estate for £400. I then spent many hundreds of pounds on a new support, re-stretching, cleaning and re-framing and eventually sold it for a profit.

Following our guide to Artist’s Resale Right (ATG No 2404) and now published in the Guides section of this website, we have a received a number of enquiries from readers asking for further information.

MADAM – What wasn’t mentioned in your review of Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) in ATG No 2404 is that the ‘first sale’ exemption also applies to auction houses, so any lots from a studio sale which make over €1000 are exempt from ARR.

New data has been released on the collection of fees for Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) but the art market remains split on its view of the levy.