Dear Sir
As organisations working closely with artists, we fully endorse the full implementation of the Artist’s Resale Right due to take place on 1 January 2012.
The Right currently allows visual artists an ongoing stake in the value of their work by paying artists a modest royalty when their works are resold through auction houses, galleries, and art dealers.
The full implementation of the Right will extend this royalty to deceased artists’ families and beneficiaries, providing desperately needed funding for managing an artist’s estate after their death, which in turn supports the work of our cultural institutions.
Despite fears that the Artist’s Resale Right would divert sales from the UK to countries which do not have an equivalent right, there has been no evidence to support this. The Right has several mechanisms in place to protect the interests of the art trade including tiered royalty rates ranging from 4% down to 0.25% which are dictated by law, and most significantly, a cap on the royalty an artist can receive on a single sale of €12,500 (approximately £11,000).
This is a modest amount of money that will make a significant to difference both to artists’ estates and cultural institutions alike.
Yours faithfully
Acme Studios
a-n The Artists Information Company
AIR Artists Interaction and Representation
Artquest
Axis – the online resource for contemporary art
Barbican Centre
Beaconsfield
Contemporary Art Society
Elevator Gallery
EPUK
Jerwood Charitable Foundation
Mother Studios
Museums of Scotland
Photo works
Shisha
Space Studios
University of the Arts London
Visual Arts UK
a-n.co.uk December 2011
