Update: Artist Rights

I have posted on the recent lawsuits filed in California against Sotheby's and Chrisite's regarding artists rights and royalties.  The NY Times recently ran a very good article on the lawsuits, what they are trying to accomplish and on artist rights in general. The California Resale Royalties Act, requires "anyone reselling a piece of fine art who lives in the state, or who sells the art there for $1,000 or more, to pay the artist 5 percent of the resale price."  Many European countries now have these artist royalty laws, and there is a push by some to initiate them here in the US as is happening in California.  Artist rights laws are based upon the French resale royalty laws called droit de suite

This could have a great impact on selling paintings in the secondary market, and both Christie's and Sotheby's plan to vigorously defend their positions against the lawsuits.  It is an interesting case, and should be one fine art appraisers follow closely.

The NY Times reports

The larger issue of whether visual artists should receive a cut of future sales remains a subject of vigorous debate. Dozens of countries already have a version of a resale royalties law, generally referred to by the French phrase droit de suite. Starting in 2012, Britain and other members of the European Union will adhere to a uniform standard that applies to both living artists and those who have died within the past 70 years. Indeed, Christie’s, on its Web site, informs prospective clients that it collects the royalty mandated in Europe at the time of the sale.

For many visual artists, the issue is clear. “We need legislation to enact the right to royalties,” said Frank Stella, the president of the International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic and Photographic Arts, “and we need to align it with what goes on in Britain and the E.U.” Literature, music, film, computer programming and patents all have better intellectual-property protection than American visual art, Mr. Stella added. The Visual Artists and Galleries Association, a nonprofit group that seeks to protect the intellectual-property rights of artists, also supports a national law.

The idea has never really caught on in the United States, though, and California remains the only state that requires royalties when a painting is resold. In 1986 Senator Edward M. Kennedy was unsuccessful in efforts to include a similar provision in the national Visual Artists Rights Act. A study by the Copyright Office in 1992 concluded that it was “not persuaded that sufficient economic and copyright policy justification exists to establish droit de suite in the United States.”

To read the complete NY Times article, click HERE.