Artists are set to benefit from the resale of their work after EU Internal Market ministers app roved a package that will see them get up to £9,850 when their works are resold in galleries and at public auctions. The ministers approved the compromise package on what is known as the droit de suite, on Thursday.
The measures will see artists take a percentage, up to a maximum of £9,850, of the resale price of works worth £3,150 or more which are resold in galleries or at public auctions. The payment will be built into the sale price of the work.
The earlier, more generous form of the directive was strongly supported by the Artists Association of Ireland.
However, the compromise deal, which will not be in place for another five years, allows states to avail of a further 10-year derogation in passing on benefits to heirs, who will eventually be able to receive a percentage of the resale value up to 70 years after a work is completed.
That 10-year derogation was strongly opposed by the European Commission as a dangerous precedent for an internal market measure.
The Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Tom Kitt, has hinted strongly that it would not be invoked by Ireland.
The directive now provides that artists will receive payments on a sliding scale from 4 per cent on works worth over £3,150 to 0.25 per cent on works worth up to £197,000, or a maximum of £9,850.
Droit de suite has been established in France since 1921, and currently operates in some 50 states worldwide, 11 in the EU. However, the French experience suggests the benefit of the royalty is limited. One-fifth of the money raised there goes to collection agencies, and gallery owners evade it or claw back some of the percentage from the artist.