Information on Resale Rights for Art Market Professionals

In the Netherlands artists and their estates are entitled to collect artists’resale royalties themselves or they can engage a third party to do so. Right holders can join Pictoright, the copyright organisation for visual artists.

Pictoright is a non-profit association supervised by the government (the College van Toezicht Auteursrechten). 2,000 Dutch and over 50,000 foreign artists, and their estates, are affiliated to Pictoright. Therefore, you are likely to encounter Pictoright at some point regarding the payment of resale royalties.

Pictoright may require information from art dealers and will regularly notify galleries and dealers. Art market professionals must then supply all the information specified above.

What is resale right?
This right entitles the creator of an original work of art to receive a small percentage of the sale price when his/her work is resold. The legislation was introduced in the Dutch Copyright Act on 1 January, 2006.

What are the terms and conditions?
The resale of an artwork must satisfy a number of criteria to qualify for resale royalties.

* Resale right only applies when an artwork is resold and thus have no bearing on the first sale
* It applies to an original artwork or a work that is created by the artist him/herself or under his/her supervision in a limited edition, for example graphic work
* An art market professional must be involved in the sale as either buyer, seller of intermediary. This professional is responsible for payment of the resale royalty
* The resale price must be at least € 3.000
* If the work is resold within three years following its original purchase from the artist, a resale right royalty is payable if the sale price exceeds € 10,000
* The artist is resident in the Netherlands or has the nationality of one of the EU/EEA countries or another country listed here.

As of 1 January, 2012, resale royalty is also payable upon the sale of artwork by deceased artists. As with copyright, a resale royalty is payable for a period of 70 years following the death of the artist.

How much is due?
The amount of resale royalties due ranges from 0,25% to 4% of the resale price:

Resale price (excl. VAT)	% of royalties
€ 3,000 to € 50,000	4
€ 50,000.01 to € 200,000	3
€ 200,000.01 to € 350,000	1
€ 350,000.01 to € 500,000	0.5
€ 500,000.01 and over	0.25

The maximum sum due in resale royalties is € 12,500.

What are your legal obligations?
Art market professionals must supply all information necessary for securing the payment of the royalty (Article 43d of the Dutch Copyright Act) including, of course, the resale price and date of sale. If you supply incorrect or insufficient information, this may be regarded as a breach of a statutory obligation that is deemed to be unlawful and/or punishable as a criminal offence. To avoid any misunderstanding, you should therefore supply all relevant information. In the event of doubt, for example regarding to whom, and in which country, the artists’ resale royalties are payable, Pictoright can refer the art dealer to the relevant artist or rightful claimant, or to a sister organisation of Pictoright abroad.

Declaring resales
You can inform Pictoright by sending us the Artist’s resale rights submission form. You can look up the [ARR] represented artists : artists who have asked Pictoright to collect their Artist’s Resale royalty payments. You only need to supply us with information regarding resales of the works of listed artists. Pictoright can answer any practical questions that art dealers may have.

Collecting and finalizing payments with Pictoright
Art dealers and artists or rightful claimants both benefit from the efficient application of artists’ resale rights. It therefore makes sense for the collection of royalties to be handled by a rights protection organization such as Pictoright.

Pictoright will collect the royalty payments on behalf of the artist or rightful claimant for works resold in the Netherlands before forwarding these payments to the said party. Obviously, Pictoright will first identify the party rightfully entitled to the royalty payment. This relieves the art market professional from this administrative burden. When works are resold in the Netherlands (e.g. at an art fair such as TEFAF) and are then delivered to and/or paid for abroad, Pictoright will still handle the royalty payment. Should an art dealer have already paid resale royalties to Pictoright, any related third-party claims can be referred to Pictoright.