Resale royalty rights for visual artists

The resale royalty scheme, established under the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Act 2009, commenced on 9 June 2010. Under the scheme, artists are eligible to receive five per cent of the sale price when their original works are resold through the art market for $1000 or more. The resale royalty right applies to works by living artists and for a period of 70 years after an artist's death.

The scheme covers original works of art, such as a painting, a collage, a drawing, a print, a sculpture, a ceramic, an item of glassware or a photograph.

The resale royalty right applies only on resales where the seller acquires a work after the resale royalty legislation takes effect.

The Act provides that the scheme will be administered by a collecting society appointed by the Minister. In early 2010, the Government conducted an open tender process to identify a collecting society to administer the scheme, and the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) was announced as the successful tenderer.

On 27 May 2010, CAL was appointed as the collecting society to administer the scheme under the Act for a five-year period.

The Australian Government committed to introducing a resale royalty right for visual artists in its 2007 election policy statement, New Directions for the Arts.

The Government announced funding of $1.5 million over three years in the 2008–09 Budget to support the scheme's establishment.

For further information about the scheme's operation, including details of how artists, art market professionals, purchasers and sellers of artworks can comply with the Act, contact CAL at:

www.resaleroyalty.org.au External link
Copyright Agency Limited
Level 15, 233 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA
Toll free (within Australia) 1800 066 844
Tel: +61 2 9394 7600
Fax: +61 2 9394 7601
Or email: info@copyright.com.au

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