BAMF chairman Anthony Browne led the fight against the European Union-imposed tax on art sales. He says that statistics published by the Design and Artists’ Copyright Society (DACS), who collect most of the levy on behalf of artists, show that it has been a failure so far.
Only 412 artists have benefited – not the thousands predicted – and some have received sums less than £15. Lowering the threshold at which the levy applies from €3000 to €1000, which was supposed to benefit thousands, seems only to have added 148 artists to the list so far. Yet this has been at significant expense, in terms of bureaucracy and administration, to the art trade.
In a letter published in the print edition of this week’s ATG, Mr Browne calls on the government to prevent “this sorry state of affairs from extending to the work of dead artists” – due to take place by 2012 – and says failure to do so will risk the British art market being “inundated with more red tape and added costs”.
DACS’ figures show artist levy is a failure – BAMF
THE British Art Market Federation have launched a new attack on Droit de Suite following the release of figures showing how the levy has performed in its first year.
