Artist's Resale Right
© Mona Hatoum. All Rights Reserved, DACS / Artimage 2024
Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis)
Campaigning for Artist's Resale Right
DACS campaigned for the introduction of ARR in the UK in 2006, for its ongoing retention in UK Law, and inclusion in future international trade agreements.
DACS supports the extension of ARR into new markets and to ensure that this vital right for artists and their heirs is safeguarded in the UK.
In August 2023, DACS published a new report highlighting the pivotal role ARR royalties play in supporting artists and the wider UK art market.
The report examines the latest statistics and information on the importance of ARR in ensuring that UK artists receive fair compensation for their works. Since first introduced in the UK in 2006, DACS has distributed more than £120 million in ARR royalties, directly benefiting over 6,000 artists and their heirs.
About the Artist’s Resale Right
The Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) Regulations came into force in the UK in 2006 and since then, ARR royalties have helped support the work, lives and careers of over 6,000 artists and their heirs. ARR provides a royalty on the secondary sale of artistic works where a gallerist, dealer or auction house is involved in the sale .
The law levels the playing field between artists and other creators, like musicians, who already receive ongoing payments for the use of their work.
The Artist’s Resale Right ensures that the value of an artist is recognised as integral, rather than separate to the value of their artwork,
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Originally introduced in France in the 1920s, the Artist’s Resale Right became an internationally recognised law by its inclusion in the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, a treaty on copyright. ARR was added to the Berne Convention in the 1940s as a voluntary right, and therefore not all Berne Convention signatories adopted the law.
After a European Union Directive codified the law in 2001, the UK adopted the Artist’s Resale Right Regulations in 2006 – updated and clarified in 2011. Post-Brexit, the UK Government tabled an amendment to the Retained EU Laws (REUL) Bill with a list of laws to be revoked at the end of 2023. The list did not include the effective Artist’s Resale Right legislation, confirming it will be retained in UK law.
