What is the resale royalty right — and do UK artists benefit?

The resale royalty right gives a living artist, or their estate for 70 years after death, a small percentage of the price each time one of their works is resold through an art-market professional such as an auctioneer or dealer. In the UK it is known formally as the Artist’s Resale Right, and yes, many artists do benefit from it, though the sums vary enormously and the system has real limits worth understanding.

What is the resale royalty right?

The resale royalty right is a legal entitlement that lets visual artists share in the increasing value of their work after the first sale. Most artists sell a piece once, often early in a career and for a modest sum, and never see another penny if that piece later changes hands for far more. The resale right was designed to correct that imbalance, recognising that a painter or sculptor, unlike a novelist or songwriter, has traditionally had no ongoing income from the resale of their creations. It applies to original works of graphic and plastic art, including paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, ceramics and photographs, where the resale involves someone acting professionally in the art market.

How does it work in the UK?

In the UK the royalty is paid on a sliding scale, with higher percentages on lower price bands and lower percentages as the price climbs. The first portion of a qualifying sale attracts 4%, and the rate steps down through the higher bands, with a total ceiling of €12,500 on any single resale however valuable the work. Sales below a threshold of €1,000 are exempt, and the royalty only applies when an art-market professional is involved, so a purely private sale between two individuals falls outside it. The figures are set in euros because the right derives from a European directive, and the amount in pounds shifts with the exchange rate.

Crucially, the right cannot be waived or sold by the artist. It belongs to them by law, which protects artists from being pressured into signing it away as a condition of representation.

Who actually collects the money?

In practice the royalty is administered by collecting societies rather than chased by individual artists. The Design and Artists Copyright Society, known as DACS, is the largest body doing this in the UK; it tracks qualifying sales, calculates what is owed, and distributes payments to registered artists and estates after deducting an administrative fee. This matters because few artists have the time or the reach to monitor every auction and dealer transaction across the country. The trade-off is that artists need to register to receive what they are due, and works sold quietly or privately may never trigger a payment at all.

The right corrects a quiet unfairness: that the people who make the work rarely share in the value it later gains.

Do UK artists really benefit?

Most working artists benefit modestly rather than dramatically, while a smaller number of established names benefit a great deal. Because the royalty is tied to resale value, the artists who gain most are those whose work has a strong and active secondary market, the world of galleries and auction houses where pieces are bought and sold again rather than sold new from the studio. You can see that secondary-market culture at London dealers such as Bernard Jacobson Gallery and Annely Juda Fine Art, where modern and contemporary works regularly change hands. For an emerging artist whose pieces seldom resell, the right may produce little in any given year. For a mid-career or senior artist with a steady auction presence, it can become a meaningful and recurring source of income.

The estates of deceased artists are often significant beneficiaries too, since the right runs for 70 years after death and the work of a respected late artist may keep trading actively. That long tail is part of why the resale right is sometimes described as a form of pension for an artistic legacy, supporting heirs and, in some cases, foundations that maintain an artist’s archive.

What are the criticisms?

The main criticisms are that the royalty adds cost and friction to the art trade and that its benefits are unevenly distributed. Dealers and auction houses argue it raises the cost of doing business and can push high-value sales to jurisdictions where no such right exists, a concern that grew sharper after Brexit changed the UK’s relationship with the European framework that created the right. Supporters counter that the sums involved are small relative to the prices being paid and that the principle, paying artists when their work appreciates, is plainly fair. Both points contain truth: the right is no windfall for most, but for the artists and estates whose work genuinely trades, it provides income that simply did not exist before.

For an artist deciding whether to engage with it, the practical answer is straightforward. Registering with a collecting society costs nothing upfront and risks nothing, since the royalty cannot reduce what you earn elsewhere. If your work resells, you gain; if it does not, you have lost only the few minutes it took to sign up.