Plan for art-resale payouts faulted

Dominion Post

UNCONVINCED: John Mowbray, of Mowbray Collectables, says the new artists' copyright bill is unworkable.

Relevant offers

Arts

World Press Photo of the Year chosen Puppet Fiction pays homage to classic film Seven guitars to commemorate loss Dancers get Short + Sweet Dancers' lives laid bare once more Karl Maughan's language of flowers New York cover story An artful pick and mix Madcap machine work goes viral Dance festival short and sweet

A bill designed to get art dealers to collect resale royalties for artists is badly drafted and unworkable, according to Mowbray Collectables managing director John Mowbray.

The Copyright Amendment (artists' resale rights) Bill, now before the Government administration select committee, would entitle artists to receive a flat 5 percent royalty payment on sales of more than $500 each time an original work is sold through an auction house, gallery or professional dealer.

The right can be passed on to an artist's heirs and is valid for 50 years after the artist's death.

It would not apply to the first sale of the artwork or to sales between private individuals.

Dealers would send the money to a yet to be identified agency for distribution, which would take a fee or percentage of the royalties.

Mowbray said the bill is ill-conceived and unlikely to assist artists early in their careers when they need the cash the most, and in most cases is unlikely to be cost-effective.

"Very few artists end up selling their art at a premium after it has originally been sold so it's a select group of 10 the McCahons, the Smithers, the Hammonds, the Hoteres who it would certainly assist because they are already selling their paintings for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"In a nutshell, it's very poorly thought out."

He suspects tracking down the artist or the artist's heirs, processing the transaction and delivering the $25 royalty on a $500 sale will cost significantly more than the royalty even before the agency takes its cut.

Mowbray, which specialises in stamp dealing and has major shareholdings in New Zealand art auction house Webb's Galleries and Bonham and Goodman, Australia's third-largest, says it is also concerned limited edition stamps are caught up in the bill.

While Mowbray expects the bill in its current form would not have a significant impact on Mowbray's business, it will add another layer of bureaucracy.

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has said that works by young and emerging artists are usually first sold for low prices.

As the work is resold over time, it often increases in value in parallel to an artist's expanding body of work and reputation.

The resale right allows the capital gain to be shared with the artist.

Trade Me sold 50,000 artworks in the last year. About 550 sold for more than $500 and only a handful would have been eligible for resale royalties.

Trade Me's head of commercial and regulatory, Mike O'Donnell, said his company was neutral about the legislation, but had sought a number of clarifications in the bill.

Resale royalties have been introduced in Europe and the UK but not in North America.

The Howard Government in Australia shelved plans to introduce resale royalties, but the Rudd Government has set aside $A1.5 billion ($NZ1.9b) to establish an agency to manage the scheme.

- © Fairfax NZ News