At the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) held the 34th session of its Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), Barbara Hayes spoke on behalf of the IAF to give the authors view on the Artist’s Resale Right.
WIPO is a special agency of the United Nations dealing with copyright at an international level. The SCCR includes government representatives of the 188 UN Member States.
The full statement is as follows.
The International Authors Forum represents authors from the text, screenwriting and visual arts sectors and their interests in copyright. Our members are 60 organisations representing well over 600,000 authors worldwide.As we know, the Artist’s Resale Right entitles creators (the authors) of original works of art to a royalty each time their work is resold through an auction house or an art market professional.
However, an Artist’s Resale Right recognizes the ongoing stake an artist has in the increasing value of their work and it helps to establish parity for artists where other creators of copyright works obtain royalties from successive exploitation of their works.
Artists benefit when their work resells in markets where the Artist’s Resale Right is collected but they miss out in other markets where the Right does not exist.
There is a growing trend towards selling artworks online and this has contributed to art sales being increasingly international. An international Artist’s Resale Right would resolve disparities between countries who have this Right and those who do not and ensure artists receive remuneration from sales of their work, especially when their work sells abroad.
The International Authors Forum welcomes the introduction of the Artist’s Resale Right on the SCCR Agenda which we hope will result in a levelling of the playing field across the globalized art market and benefit all artists no matter where their work is sold.