Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A river of paydays for artists? Not bad. Not bad.

We all know that once an artist in Canada, sells his work and the money is stuffed into her pocket the financial transaction is over.(forgive my efforts at being sexually politically correct)

Did you know that in France, an artist can receive residual royalties over and over again after the original work is sold and resold and resold.

If you read the article below, you will see what I mean.


In 59 ... countries including most of Europe, [painter Mary] Pratt would get a small percentage (from a fraction of one per cent to five per cent, depending on the sale price) of the hammer price of her resold painting thanks to a principle known as “droit de suite,” or the artist’s resale right.

The right, which has existed in France for decades but was only introduced to the U.K. in 2006, means that an artist, who has previously sold works for low prices, can profit from rising prices on subsequent sales of those pieces. The law applies after death too, so that an artist’s heirs would get a share until copyright expires, 75 years after death in most of these countries.

“The whole value of an art work is not made on the original sale,” said April Britski, national executive director of the Canadian Arts Representation (CARFAC). “Visual artists are at a great disadvantage compared to writers or musicians who keep getting money from recordings or books. [With art,] you sell it once and it’s gone.” Britski said the right would be particularly valuable to older artists and to Canada’s aboriginal artists, who may sell works for much less than urban collectors eventually pay for them. Australia has just adopted the right specifically to address the exploitation of its aboriginal artists.

source: Entertainmentmedialawsignal.com
Please click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for posting your comments.
ATTENTION SPAMMERS: Comments with links to other websites, will not be accepted.

A message for anonymous posters: Comments will be accepted provided they are thoughtful and articulate.

Reciprocating comments between posters will not be accepted. Sorry - I have no intention of giving readers the opportunity to engage in flame wars. It won't happen.

Fredericks-Artworks Blog, copying policy


The Canadian Copyright act, section 29 reports on fairdealing, that it is not an infringement to reproduce someone else's work for research, study, criticism, review or to report. Which pretty much sums up what this site is about. All content sources, be they artists, printed references, and website url's are respectfully identified on this site. http://http//www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-c-42/latest/rsc-1985-c-c-42.html

Mission Statement
A Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada, is intended to celebrate the richness of Canada's visual arts, and to promote the arts in Canada.

Statement of Intent
I make every effort to credit the sources of information used in this blog and to obtain the permission and cooperation of all the works presented by living artists. I try, as much as possible to use works from public sources eg. national and provincial collections, of deceased artists. If for any reason, any artist disapproves of anything written about them or their work the artist is encouraged to request withdrawal of the content.