23 June 2008
The Rudd Government has recently expressed its commitment to introducing a resale royalty policy of visual artists, similar to that which was rejected by the Howard Government in 2006. Under this policy artists would receive a percentage of the sale price each time their work is resold.
At present, the Copyright Act does not entitle visual artists who sell their works to receive any income from any future increase in value when the work is resold. However, the introduction of a bill similar to the Artist's Resale Rights Bill 2006 would entitle visual artists to receive a royalty payment each time their artistic work is resold on the secondary art market, whether through an auction house, gallery, dealer, or any other business that deals with artistic works.The resale royalty would apply only to the first sale or transfer of an artistic work, and it would not apply to sales between private individuals or in relation to works for which the sale price is $2000 or less.
The 2006 Bill deemed an artist who creates an original art work to be the holder of an inalienable resale right, protecting an artist from being pressured into contracting out of the right. Inalienability also protects an artist from being pressured to share the right with anyone else.
The 2006 Bill suggested a sliding scale of resale royalties for artists, ranging from a royalty of 4 percent for works sold for under $100,000, to 0.25 percent for works sold for more than $1 million. The amount that can be received under that scheme was capped at $25,000.
The resale royalty scheme was designed to apply to any visual art work in which copyright exists. In line with the Act, this would include original works such as paintings, drawings, photographs, film and sound records, sculptures, glassworks and ceramics. Furthermore, a plan of a building was included in the resale right scheme and if included in the Rudd Government's Bill, could attract a resale royalty if it was sold on the secondary art market.
The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has distributed an Issues Paper on Artists Resale Royalty Scheme for Visual Artists – Framework and Parameters to a number of interested parties within the industry, including the Australian Copyright Council which issued a response in May 2008. However, the Issues Paper has not yet been made publicly available.
Since 2004, resale royalty has been platform policy for the ALP, which put forward private members bills on the subject in 2004 and 2006. While the ALP has confirmed its commitment to the policy, the new Government has a large amount of legislation to get through concerning industrial relations and other social programs. No Bill has been tabled as yet.
