The Artist’s Resale Right was introduced in the UK in 2006, and may entitle you to a royalty when your work is resold by an art market professional.

An art market professional is defined as someone "acting in the course of a business of dealing in works of art”. In practice this includes galleries, auction houses and art dealers, but in general it excludes museums and private individuals.

You can only secure these royalties via a collecting society such as DACS. By signing up with us, you’ll benefit from copyright advice from our in-house team of lawyers and copyright experts, collection of resale royalties from overseas, as well as a quick, efficient payment service trusted by thousands of UK and international artists.

In addition, we may already have royalties to pay you, even if you haven’t yet signed up to our Artist's Resale Right service.

Please email [email protected] if you believe we may have already collected resale royalties on your behalf.

When it applies

The Artist’s Resale Right doesn’t apply to all sales. You’re only entitled to a royalty if the following conditions are met.

Sale Price

An artwork must sell for €1,000 or more to qualify for a resale royalty. As the threshold is given in Euros we use the exchange rate on the date of sale to work out the threshold in Sterling.

Type of Sale   

The Artist’s Resale Right only covers works sold on the secondary market with the involvement of art market professionals; subsequent to the first transfer of ownership from the artist. Sales between private individuals or between a private individual and a museum are exempt.

Type of Artist

You must also be a national of the UK or a national of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA). A list of countries in the EEA is available here.

If you have dual nationality, for instance if you are American but also hold a British passport, you may also be entitled to a resale royalty. When signing up to our service please ensure you enter both nationalities.

Type of work

The Artist’s Resale Right covers the following:

• Any copyright-protected work of graphic or plastic art, for example a picture, collage, painting, drawing, engraving, print, lithograph, sculpture, tapestry, ceramic, glassware or photograph;
• Limited editions - the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 state that any copy of an artwork “which is one of a limited number made by the artist or under his/her authority” qualifies. This also includes prints which are bought directly from a publishing house and then resold to the public. The law does not state an upper limit on the number of items in an edition. Please refer to a copy of the British Standards Classification of Prints (BS7876);
• Furniture, silverware and jewellery pieces, created by a named artist or craftsperson and which qualify for copyright protection (please note it is unlikely that mass-produced items will be covered by the Right).
• Posters of a graphic work such as a lithograph, etching or original print authored by a named artist, though commercial reproductions of artworks in the form of unlimited posters and prints do not.