United Kingdom (UK) Artists' Creativity Rewarded

British artists will receive well-deserved reward for their creativity through the introduction of regulations giving them the right to a royalty on the resale of their works, Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Sainsbury said today.

From today, when an artist's work is resold on the UK art market for the equivalent of €1,000 or more, he or she will receive a royalty of up to four per cent of the sale price.

Lord Sainsbury said:

"The Artist's Resale Right Regulations ensure a just reward for living British artists' creativity while protecting the valuable UK art market."

The regulations have been introduced to comply with the European Union (EU) Artist's Resale Right Directive.

"The balanced Government approach will benefit struggling artists without placing a heavy administrative burden on the art market and will minimise the risk that sales would be driven offshore."

The directive required the Government to set the threshold at which the royalty is paid at between €0 and €3,000.

Eighty-eight per cent of works by living artists sold in the UK in the €1,000 to €3,000 price range in 2003-2004 were by British artists.

To protect the most valuable sector of the UK art market, which is works by deceased artists, the UK Government successfully negotiated a delay in the application of the royalty to works by deceased artists until 2010, with a possible extension to 2012, and will seek to extend it indefinitely.

Editor notes:

1. The results of the UK Patent Office's 2005 consultation (130Kb) are available on this web site.

2. European Union Directive 2001/84/EC came into force on 13 October 2001 after 10 years of negotiations.

Date of press release 14 February 2006