Collection agency head warns over resale rights

The “honeymoon” grace period on accurate reporting of sales eligible for the Artists’ Resale Right (ARR) is coming to an end, says Leonora Gummer, of the Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS). Gummer was speaking at the inaugural Art Business Conference on 4 September, organised by Louise Hamlin, The Art Newspaper’s head of sales. Meanwhile, the ACS has begun legal proceedings against a Cornish auction house that has refused to reveal its eligible sales. (The royalty applies to living artists and those who have been dead for up to 70 years.) In June, Dacs, the UK’s other collecting society, announced that in 2013 it paid out £14.7m in royalties, of which £8.4m related to the ARR (copyright and other licensing royalties are also included in the total).