AN Irish artist is vowing to challenge the ruling that he must accept the artist's resale right. He says he will take out an injunction the day it comes into force in the Irish Republic to prevent agencies from collecting the levy, known as Droit de Suite, on his behalf.
Dublin-based landscape painter Dominic Penny, who is campaigning against what he sees as a severe infringement of his rights, is calling on fellow artists to join him in his fight against the levy.
He says he has spent the last five years taking legal advice on the issue, and told ATG that a leading expert in European Union law, among others, believes he would win any challenge in the European Court.
Mr Penny, who also deals in art and has declared he will not buy or sell any objects subject to the levy because of the paperwork involved, is outraged at what he calls Brussels' interference in his copyright, his rights to form a contract and his rights to say who should or should not benefit from his estate.
"It is my intention, as an artist, to waive all my rights under Droit de Suite," he says. "As soon as the new laws applying to the resale of works of art in Ireland come into force, all of my paintings will be stamped with a waiver so that they can be bought or sold freely."
This will challenge the ruling that the right is inalienable - in other words, the artist has no choice but to accept the levy, and that it must be collected by an agency on his behalf.
Mr Penny is hoping to force the authorities' hand by his action. "If they don't take me on, that's it, we will all be free to ignore it," he said. "But if they do challenge me and I lose in the courts here, I can appeal at the European Court - and there I will win."
Mr Penny believes that artists will lose out as dealers opt not to do business in works that are liable for the levy. And he warns that auction houses face a daunting challenge in cataloguing from now on.
"Every auctioneer, in cataloguing objects, will have to mark qualifying entries as liable," he said.
This could prove particularly difficult because, while specialists may be able to check lists fairly easily for fine artists who qualify, the definition of a work of art under the resale right also includes glass, ceramics, tapestries and photographs. Factory painters of modern ceramics are likely to qualify in such circumstances, for instance, and until 2010, auctioneers would need to establish whether these artists are still alive.
Mistakes in cataloguing on this basis could leave the auctioneers to foot the bill for the levy, which would otherwise be passed onto the buyer.
