In fact, as far as picture dealers are concerned, they have already lost this prominence.
In my opinion this is mainly due to The Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) Act which imposes a royalty on to the gross amount of the sales invoice if the sale is made in the UK and is a work by British living artists and the descendants of artists deceased within the last 70 years.
However, it does not apply in countries such as the US, China, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
Consequently a large amount of the international fine art trade has migrated to those countries that do not impose ARR.
This puts jobs at risk among the highly skilled artisans such as painting restorers, gilders, frame makers, fair organisers, catalogue printers, picture dealers etc.
Instead of paying income tax and corporation tax, that I and my art-related colleagues have been paying for past decades, some of us are now costing the state.
If the government were to abolish ARR, or to lobby for it to be enforced worldwide, we could all go back to being able to afford to exhibit at the excellent fairs that we used to enjoy so much.
It really is a ‘No Brainer’.
If trade associations continue to lobby the UK government and point out how much ARR is damaging our economy, we might be able to enjoy the fairs again.
Jeremy Taylor
London SW7
