A recent extension to the Artist's Resale Right entitles you to a royalty every time work by the artist to whom you are an heir is resold on the art market with the involvement of an art market professional.
The Artist’s Resale Right was introduced in the UK in 2006 for living artists and was extended as of 1 January 2012, allowing the beneficiaries and heirs of deceased artists whose works are still within copyright to benefit.
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 it excludes museums and private individuals.
You can only claim 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 contact us on
[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
subsequent to the first transfer of ownership from the artist with the involvement of an art market professionals; it doesn’t cover works being transferred for the first time. Sales between private individuals or between a private individual and a museum are exempt.
Where an art market professional is using a web-based platform or service such as eBay or ArtBank to conduct their sales, then a royalty is due providing the sale satisfies all other qualifying criteria.
Type of Artist
You must be the beneficiary of the Artist's Resale Right.
If you are unsure who inherited the Right, you should refer to our entitlement document for further information. We cannot advise on any aspects of a person's entitlement to receive resale royalties and cannot advise on wills or other aspects of inheritance law for this purpose.
The artist must have been a national of
the UK or the national of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA). Your nationality
as a beneficiary is not relevant. A list of
countries in the EEA is available here.
If the artist had dual nationality, for instance if they were American but also held 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 types of artwork:
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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;
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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);
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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).
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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.