Are you a visual artist or artist's heir? Support a petition for a universal Artist’s Resale Right, so all visual artists and estates benefit when their work is resold on the art market, regardless of nationality and where the sale takes place.
What is the Artist's Resale Right?
Originally conceived in France in 1920, the
Artist's Resale Right - also known as
Droit de suite - was first introduced in the UK in 2006. It entitles artists and their heirs to a modest share of a sale, or ‘royalty’, each time their work changes hands between an auction house, art dealer or gallery.
The Right is currently upheld throughout the
European Economic Area and in other countries worldwide including Australia and Mexico. However, it is not yet recognised universally, including by the USA and China, two of the biggest players in today’s global art market.
This means many artists are missing out on an important source of income - including UK artists and estates if their work is resold in a country where the Right is not recognised, such as the USA.
Sign the petition
As a result, a petition calling for the Right to be recognised globally has been launched by
European Visual Artists (EVA), CISAC and GESAC, who together represent visual arts rights organisations across the world, including DACS.
This also follows recent considerations by the American, Chinese and Canadian governments to implement the Right.
If enough support is galvanised the Right could become mandatory for all member countries of the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the United Nations agency responsible for intellectual property law worldwide.
This would hugely benefit visual artists and their estates, ensuring all can benefit from sales of their work in any area of the global art market, be it London, Paris, New York or Hong Kong.
Support artists everywhere and sign the petition
Find out more
We currently administer the Artist’s Resale Right on behalf of UK artists and estates, as well as on behalf of the members of
our sister societies across the world.
We proactively campaigned for its implementation in the UK, seeing it first introduced for living artists in 2006, and more recently extended in 2012 to include artists’ estates.
Read more about the petition.
Sign up to our Artist’s Resale Right service for artists or estates.
Watch our interview with artist Gavin Turk on the importance of the Artist’s Resale Right.