The United Kingdom has reluctantly joined 19 other EU countries “adopting the droit de suite, or artist’s resale right, which requires sellers to pay artists (or their heirs) as much as 4% of the price every time a piece is resold, for up to 70 years after an artist’s death. (The droit does not apply to sales between two collectors.)” The rule, which applies retroactively to art created in the past and already in collectors’ hands, is likely to harm British galleries and dealers — and perhaps artists as well — by driving the international art market to countries that do not enforce such rules. “The cream of the crop of important modern and contemporary art has already fled Europe and is beginning to leave London in anticipation of 2006,” says Dallas economist David Kusin, who conducted a study on the subject for the European Fine Art Foundation. (Susan Adams, Forbes, Jun. 20).
“Picking patrons’ pockets”
The United Kingdom has reluctantly joined 19 other EU countries “adopting the droit de suite, or artist’s resale right, which requires sellers to pay artists (or their heirs) as much as 4% of the price every time a piece is resold, for up to 70 years after an artist’s death. (The droit does not apply […]
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