New Zealand Shelves Artist Resale Royalty Plans - australianartmarket.com News came in this week that the New Zealand government has shelved plans to introduce a resale royalty similar to the scheme which looks set to be introduced in Australia on the 1st of July this yea
News came in this week that the New Zealand government has shelved plans to introduce a resale royalty similar to the scheme which looks set to be introduced in Australia on the 1st of July this year. According to the New Zealand government website “In March 2009 the Government Administration Committee of the 49th Parliament reported back on the Copyright (Artists’ Resale Right) Amendment Bill. The Committee recommended by a majority that the Bill not be passed.” This development will concern some people who believe that if Australia has a resale royalty and New Zealand doesn’t that works of art will be resold in New Zealand where the resale right doesn’t exist instead of in Australia. In my opinion, the inconvenience involved with an Australian having to organise for a transaction to take place in New Zealand to avoid the resale royalty would be enough to prevent such a scenario taking place. If the introduction of a resale royalty was going to divert business to a country without a resale royalty then the UK would have experienced a mass migration of business to nearby countries that don’t have a resale right such as Switzerland. Which it didn’t. According to a report conducted by the UK IP Institute in January 2008 titled ‘A study into the effect on the UK art market of the introduction of the artist’s resale right’:
“There is no evidence that Artist’s Resale Royalty (ARR) has diverted business away from the UK, where the size of the art market has grown as fast, if not faster, than the art market in jurisdictions where ARR is not currently payable.”
The full report can be viewed here:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/study-droitdesuite.pdf
Having worked in the visual arts copyright industry for several years I have a very good understanding of the issues surrounding the resale royalty and will be writing many posts on the subject in the future. If you have any questions regarding the resale royalty or any comments to make please feel free to do so in the comments section below.
**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.
