A European Union Directive introduced into UK law in 2006 allows
artists to claim a portion of the sale price of their works even if
the work is sold by a third party. The law only applies if the
artwork in question is still in copyright.
The UK has only introduced the right for living artists, though.
It intended to extend the right to a resale royalty to dead
artists' estates in 2010, but has now asked the artistic community
if it should continue to exclude dead artists' estates until
2012.
The UK-IPO said that 90% of the 400 respondents to its
consultation said that they supported giving dead artists' estates
the royalty in 2010, not 2012.
"All of the artists and artists' estates who expressed an
opinion on the derogation have said that they thought that it
should be allowed to lapse," said a UK-IPO statement. "All bar two
of the often detailed responses from the art trade were in support
of extending the derogation until 2012."
Works of art are often sold for very large sums of money, but
not by the artist. A successful artist will typically sell an
entire collection at once. If works from those collections
subsequently become worth large sums then it is the buyer, not the
artist, who benefits.
The resale royalty gives the artist the chance to benefit from
large subsequent sales. It only applies to sales over €1,000 and
the maximum royalty is €12,500. The percentage royalty is
calculated on a sliding scale.
The royalty only applies to works which are protected by
copyright, which lasts for the duration of the artist's life plus
70 years.
"Several UK collecting societies and representatives of other
rights made submissions saying that the derogation should be
allowed to lapse in order that resale right is brought into line
with the other types of copyright," said the UK-IPO statement.
The UK-IPO said that it will conduct further analysis of the
consultation results, and that if the Government does decide to try
to extent the period in which it excludes the dead from the royalty
it must make a case to the European Commission by the end of the
year.
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