The impact of the EU Directive on artist resale rights (ARR), introduced in part two years ago, may have been exaggerated by a small group within the art trade in order to delay full implementation of the law, the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) has claimed. The current Directive has resulted in DACS collecting over £4.4m in resale royalties for over 1,400 living UK artists since February 2006.
The next stage, involving implementing the right for deceased artists and their beneficiaries, has been delayed by the UK Government until 1 January 2010 and could be further delayed to 2012. Speaking to AP, DACS claimed that the art market “has continued to flourish since the introduction of the resale right – it has not had the negative impact that some predicted”. DACS has carried out research which shows that 87% of art market professionals say that the ARR (also known as ‘droit de suite’) has not damaged their business. The value of the UK art market has almost doubled from £4.2bn in 2004 to £8.5bn in 2007, with much of this boom accounted for by huge rises in the price of contemporary work. The British Art Market Federation (BAMF), which represents elements of the British art trade, including the Society of London Art Dealers and the Fine Art Trade Guild, questions DACS’s position and supports the Government in its quest for a further delay. Anthony Browne, Chair of the BAMF, told AP that its own research, contained in the Froschauer report of January 2008, concentrated on the sector of the art market which specialises in the resale of the work of living artists. “I’ve not yet met one who doesn’t think that it’s affected them to some extent,” he said.