Kindness or Catastrophe? Australia's experience of resale royalty rights

"Artist’s Resale Royalty in Australia: Strong evidence of a catastrophic decline in both sales and prices: Australia's Art Market Down 50%" is the title of an article in AAD (Art Antiques Design) by Australian artist and artists' resale royalty agitator John R. Walker. According to the abstract:

In this article, I shall give an overview of the highly corrosive impact, which the Artist’s Resale Royalty (ARR) has had, and is having on Australia’s Art market. The impact of ARR also appears to have had an entirely adverse reaction on the UK’s Art Market; with trade in a large proportion of valuable secondary market Art works now, quite obviously, taking flight to places like New York, Switzerland and Miami. Below, as you will see, many reputable, and governmental sources have been cited. Due to the implementation of this scheme, we, in Australia, have sadly seen our indigenous Art sector virtually wither away right in front of our eyes since the ARR was introduced back in 2010.

I’m an Australian Artist, I’m not being paid to write this, and the below is an honest appraisal of what we are facing here due to the ARR, and it is written based on my personal experience, and on factual publicly available information.

This article powerfully and persuasively puts the case for taking an urgent look at a scheme which, however well-intentioned its implementation may have been, appears to be in need of careful reappraisal.

To read this article in full, click here