Artist’s Resale Right: no impact on art trade, big difference for artists

The Artist’s Resale Right is providing significant incentives and investment for visual artists with no negative impact on the UK art market, DACS argues in its submission to the European Commission on the impact of the Right.

DACS has paid nearly 2000 artists more than £11.4 million in resale royalties since the introduction of the Artist’s Resale Right in 2006; a figure which accounts for only 0.04% of the total value of the art market over that same period. Even with the full implementation to include families and beneficiaries, the royalties due will be worth only 0.15%.

DACS’ research concludes this is a modest sum with no significant impact on the market’s international competitiveness when viewed against other industry costs. In fact, after the introduction of the Right and before the financial crisis in 2008, the UK art market continued to outgrow the US and Swiss art markets, suggesting the art trade is more robust than the Right’s opponents claim.

Gilane Tawadros, Chief Executive of DACS, said, “Visual artists have been vocal in their support of the Artist’s Resale Right since its introduction, both as a vital source of income and an important means of recognition. DACS believes there is a compelling case for allowing families and beneficiaries the much-needed income the Right will bring. Artists’ estates and beneficiaries do much to preserve the legacy, and therefore increase the resale value, of artists’ works whilst at the same time sustaining the UK’s artistic heritage.

“The royalties represent a tiny portion of the UK art trade. When Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man I sold for £58 million in the UK in February 2010, it earned £7 million in buyer’s premium for Sotheby’s. Compare this to the £2.4 million in resale royalties which were generated by resale royalties in the UK during the whole of 2010".

For further information please contact Tania Spriggens at DACS on 020 7553 9052 or [email protected].

Read DACS' submission to the EC consultation on the impact of the Artist's Resale Right  


Photo: Chantal Joffe. © Brian Benson 2013.