#art act

It’s Not That Easy: Artist Resale Royalty Rights and The ART Act

By Laurel Wickersham Salisbury.

The discussion of droit de suite, or resale royalty rights for visual artists, across the globe continues to be of interest while European authorities debate the mechanics of the right and the United States Congress considers new legislation. In France and Italy, respectively, a court decision[1] and new industry guidelinesinform the collection of the royalty…

Early last March, London’s Conservative mayor Boris Johnson unveiled Hans Haacke’s “Gift Horse,” the tenth commission installed on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. Described on the Greater London Authority’s website as a rumination on the “link[s] between power, money, and history,” “Gift Horse” consists of a bronze horse skeleton and a live electronic ticker of the London Stock Exchange. During the unveiling, both Johnson and Haacke evaded questions about the work’s meaning; Johnson acutely aware of the sculpture’s import during a period of harsh economic austerity, and Haacke preferring to leave the interpretation of his work to viewers.

On Tuesday the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered its ruling on the California Resale Royalty Act (CRRA), deeming it unconstitutional but, unlike the District Court that examined it back in 2012, deciding that the offending clause could be removed without having to strike the entire act. The decision is being heralded as victory by resale royalties advocates, who are hoping that similar legislation can be implemented at the federal level; most developed countries have laws in place to ensure that visual artists are compensated when their works are sold at auction.

The proposed US Congressional bill to give visual artists royalties on the resale of their work at auction is dead, but a House Representative plans to revive it.

The seal of the US Copyright Office (via Wikimedia)

US Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) have introduced a bill that would give visual artists royalties on the resale of their work, or droit de suite, Congress announced this afternoon. The bill is called the American Royalties, Too (ART) Act of 2014.

The ART Act seeks “to level the playing…