From NYT Arts Beat: Lawmakers Propose Royalties Be Paid to Artists on Resale
By PATRICA COHEN
It’s the dream of every art collector to buy a painting from a little-known artist for $100 and later sell it for $1 million. But how does that artist feel? Some think it unfair that artists typically do not directly benefit when a particular work escalates in value, and a bill introduced Thursday by Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, and Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, seeks to redress that.
With the support of organizations like the Visual Artists and Galleries Association and the Artists Rights Society, the lawmakers propose setting aside 7 percent of the price of artworks that are resold for more than $10,000 at auction houses. Half of the commission would go to the artist and the other half to nonprofit art museums. The legislation, which would apply only to the resale of work, models itself on laws — more commonly known as droit de suite — already on the books in dozens of countries. More here: