Win for Indigenous artists over royalties for international resales

Australian artists whose work is re­sold overseas will receive royalty payments for the first time under policy amendments to be introduced by the federal government.

Sotheby’s Aboriginal Art Auction at the Museum of Contempary Art. A man adjust Emily Kame Kngwarreye: Alhalkere_Old Man Emu with Babies.

Australian artists whose work is re­sold overseas will receive royalty payments for the first time under policy amendments to be introduced by the federal government.

Arts Minister Tony Burke revealed the government’s Resale Royalty Scheme – a key plank in its Revive cultural policy – would be broadened beyond the domestic market to include 17 countries. Under the RRS, Australian artists are entitled to 5 per cent of a work’s commercial resale price of or above $1000.

The amendments, in which royalties for Australian artists would be paid at a rate prescribed by the country in which a work is sold, involve a reciprocal arrangement with eligible countries, whose practitioners would be entitled to the benefit on works sold within Australia, Mr Burke said. Countries signed on to the agreement are France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Britain, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Mr Burke said expansion of the scheme, introduced in 2010 and administered by the Copyright Agency, represented an ongoing commitment to the cultural sector and a fair outcome for visual artists.

“When we established the Resale Royalty Scheme … it was highly controversial,” he said. “But (it was) the right thing to do.

“Now we’re able to expand that scheme so that artists get their fair share, not only when their work is resold in Australia but around the world.”

The changes would come into effect on March 31.

The RRS’s introduction in 2010 under Labor arts minister Peter Garrett largely was seen as a positive reform, especially for Indigenous artists missing out on profits on the resale of their work at auction. It also provided a new income stream for eligible artists.

However, some worried it would be established non-Indigenous artists who would be its main beneficiaries.

According to the CA, the scheme since its inception has netted more than $14m in resale royalties for more than 2700 visual artists. There have been 32,000 resales in that time and more than 65 per cent of royalties recipients have been Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artists.

Further, Indigenous artists had received 40 per cent of the total royalties, according to CA.

The scheme has courted criticism over the years for a perceived lack of administrative transparency and the fact it is tailored to a relatively small portion of artists – those whose works can find a home on the secondary market.

Resale rights apply to works by living artists, and for artists up to 70 years after their death.