Artists Resale Right

PERSONAL intervention by French President Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the stakes in the battle over extending the Artist’s Resale Right (Droit de Suite) to the heirs of dead artists.

THE British Art Market Federation and other campaigners are cautiously optimistic that the government will agree not to extend the Artist’s Resale Right to the heirs of artists who have been dead for less than 70 years until 2012.

The Government confirmed last week that it is not currently in favour of extending the artists’ resale rights scheme from 2010 to include the heirs of artists.

Nearly two years after its rushed introduction in the Republic of Ireland, the Artist’s Resale Right is still causing confusion among auctioneers, dealers, artists and aministrators.

THE French government’s change of heart over the Artist’s Resale Right is being hailed a sea change by fellow ‘anti’ campaigners.

Dealers say ARR is damaging emerging artists’ interests

THE Artists’ Collecting Society have completed their first year of collecting and paying out the Artists’ Resale Right. They have now been given the mandate to collect the resale right by 200 artists, including well known names like Lucien Freud and Anthony Caro.

FOR the third time this year, a dealers’ survey has highlighted the unpopularity of the Artist’s Resale Right in the trade and the indifference of a majority artists to the ruling.

THE leading dealer associations have drawn up guidelines to clarify the position on how the artists’ resale levy applies to sales of prints.

THE British art trade has paid out over £1m since Droit de Suite came into force at the start of the year. Despite some initial bureaucratic difficulties, the Artists’ Resale Right appears to have been implemented more smoothly in Britain than in other European countries.

JUST in time for Christmas – the perfect stocking filler for every art dealer, collector and art market professional.

DEALERS from all over Europe have launched a campaign to get rid of the resale right enjoyed by the heirs of dead artists.

NEW guidelines limiting the types of print that can attract the Artist’s Resale Right have come into force. They restrict qualifying works to those where the artist has been directly involved in preparing the matrix – the inked surface used in printing.

THE Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) has made its second Droit de Suite pay-out to artists. It means that the collecting agency has now distributed over £65,000 since the resale levy was implemented in February. More than 140 artists have now received payments from DACS.

THE Design and Artist's Copyright Society (DACS) have made their first pay-outs to artists for the Droit de Suite resale levy.

THE launch of a new collecting agency for the artist’s resale levy has broken the monopoly of The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS). The Bridgeman Art Library, one of the world’s leading sources of fine art images, told ATG that they have set up a new company called Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) to collect the levy on behalf of artists in the UK.

AUSTRALIA have rejected Droit de Suite.

MORE details have been emerging as to exactly how dealers will have to meet their obligations under the droit de suite directive.

DROIT de Suite, the much-dreaded Artist’s Resale Right, faced an early test at a Godalming picture sale last week, and slipped into the world of UK provincial auctions with barely a murmur.

Droit de Suite, the Artist’s Resale Right, finally came into force on February 14. It means that, subject to certain conditions, living artists are entitled to receive a royalty each time their art work is bought and sold via an art market professional.