Artist Resale Right Case Study

The resale right (droit de suite) would entitle an artist to some proportion of the proceeds of resales of his/her original artwork, depending on the gross price, the increase in price and could appear in many different variations. It might only apply to sales that meet some minimum price, could vary with respect to the range of percentages, might be waivable and more importantly it might endure after the artist’s death.
The reason behind the focus on the Artist Resale Right in the previous section and the following paragraphs, is mainly to break the barrier that works of art are somewhat different from other market commodities. Economic, policy reasons,problems related to administration/collection of royalties and issues of international
Very often, this has raised the question on why artists are being treated differently from other producers of negotiable goods. Some critics presented the argument of a watch designer and whether he should also have had a right to share in the increased value of his watches when people started to collect them.
Examining the issue from a theoretical and a practical-economic point of view is key in determining whether artists should be granted a right to share in resale proceed, and therefore awarded special treatment.
The theoretical view that is common in countries with a civil law tradition, particularly Continental European countries has its origin in a natural law concept of intellectual property rights. This concept recognizes a continuing relationship between artists and their works, even after sale. It considers a resale right as part of the artist’s moral rights, which again is an approach that focuses principally on the personality rights of creators.
Practical-economic reality is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller at a given time in a free market scenario. In practice market forces dictate the price and the terms of the sale. The duty to pay a resale royalty in the future when acquiring a work of art, would automatically have a number of adverse
As a result, a recommendation has been presented that both sides have undertaken to implement.
For example, collecting societies will provide art dealers with electronic information about the artists entitled to the resale right. The art trade, in turn, will give collecting societies information in an agreed format about the sale of works subject to the resale right.
Back in 2014, with the full backing of Commissioner Barnier the “Key Principles and Recommendations on the management of the Author Resale Right” was signed by art dealers, auctioneers, galleries, authors, representatives of collecting management organisations, and other stakeholders. Following a series of meetings carried out in this regard, a number of recommendations were put forth to improve the administration of the author resale right. Inter alia, the recommendations can be divided into three general sub-headings: i) Recommendations on transparency and