THE EU Art Resale Right Directive is now law in all 27 EU countries. Living artists, or their heirs and beneficiaries, are entitled to a royalty on resales of contemporary and modern art up to a maximum of 12,500 Euros, or $15,372.00, per sale. A compulsory collective management system administers the royalties. The Royal Institute of Chartered

Surveyors (RICS) based in the United Kingdom invited Alexandra Darraby, principal in the Art Law Firm, to road map the impact of the new 2012 UK artresale royalty regulations on the global art market. RICS published the findings in companion articles, the first in THE ARTS SURVEYOR (April 2012), The New Cost on Arts Profits... Read More

The global art market is booming, a Teflon sector amidst economic downturn and Euro-woes, topping $60 billion according to some European sources. The EU's market share of global sales is estimated at around 40%, with China overtaking the US. China boosted its market share from 23% in 2010 to 30% in 2011, while the US dropped from 34% in 2010 to about 29% in 2011. The resale market accounts for as much half of total sales. The metrics demonstrate some flex, and the calculations vary from report to report, but everyone agrees the worldwide art market is ratcheted upward. China anticipates 18% annual growth in the next 3 years.

How do across-the-board resale royalties in the EU drive the global tempo of contemporary and modern art sales, where only the EU and a few others collect a royalty? Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors asked Alexandra Darraby of the Art Law Firm to explain how royalty laws impact artappraisals, auction sales, collection values and museum gifts, and published the surprising answers in THE ARTS SURVEYOR (July 2012), Appraisal Practice and the Art Resale Right... Read More

A federal district court ruling in California this year declared the California Resale Royalty Act unconstitutional in a federal class action brought by artists and estates against auction houses, a ruling under appeal. The Art Law Firm filed the first constitutional challenge in 30 years in another case brought a few months earlier, contending that the California law violated the U.S. Constitution under the commerce, supremacy and contracts clauses, and was preempted by federal copyright law. The plaintiff-a company formed by an artist to collect resale royalties-opposed the removal. The court remanded the matter to state court without a hearing... Read More

Federal legislators reacted to the fall of the California resale law by drafting bills known as the Equity for Visual Artists Act to create a nationwide resale royalty in the amount of 7%, which would be the highest resale royalty in the world. The current plan under H.R. 3688 and Senate Bill 2000 imposes the obligation without a cap, unlike the graduated and tiered systems in the EU that also cap the amount owed, thus limiting the financial exposure on the investment.

The inaugural Spring 2012 meeting in Beijing of delegates from SIPO and the United States heralded new cooperation on intellectual property, followed by a conference in Beijing of lawyers, judges, economists and academics exchanging developments in digital rights, copyright and new proposals for Chinese IP laws. Alexandra Darraby of the Art Law Firm initiated a Joint Task Force of international and intellectual property lawyers working in China, foreign countries, and the US to draft comments on China's proposed new copyright law. The American Bar Association filed The Task Force report with the National Copyright Administration of China, which issued a revised version of the law in July.  www.ncac.gov.cn

The SIPO-US Bar Council announced the 2012 appointment of Alexandra Darraby as a Delegate.