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What is the Artist's Resale Right?
The Artist's Resale Right allows creators to receive a small portion of the resale price of their works whenever they are sold again by art market professionals.
At the beginning of an artist's career, works are often sold at modest prices as they work to establish themselves. But over the years, thanks to their talent and the loyalty of collectors, the value of their work often increases. The artist's works could be sold again for many times what they garnered at the beginning of their career.
The Artist's Resale Right, once adopted, would allow an equitable sharing of wealth between creators and resellers of their works, and would see artists (or their heirs) receive a small percentage of the resale price of their works by commercial galleries or auction houses, for the term of copyright protection.
How Does it Work?
the amount owed to creators (or their heirs) following the resale of their artworks and to
effectively manage the collection and payment of those royalties.
Find below the elements that must be considered when adopting the Artist's Resale Right
and SOCAN's perspective on each.
*The term of copyright will be extended to life plus 70 years by the end of 2022 as part of Canada’s CUSMA obligations.
SOCAN, a perfect fit.
Over the past 30 years, SOCAN has been effectively managing the copyright of nearly 170,000 creators in Canada. With our experience in licensing, royalty collection and distribution, as well as continuously advancing the technology required to handle increasing amounts of data, SOCAN already plays a leading role in fair compensation for creators.
SOCAN is perfectly suited to administer the Artist’s Resale Right as soon it is adopted in Canada, for the benefit of its Visual Arts & Crafts members and other Canadian visual artists. In addition, as a non-profit collective management organization, SOCAN has established reciprocal agreements with 35 other visual arts & crafts sister societies internationally. As many of these societies are from countries who have adopted the Artist’s Resale Right, SOCAN will be in a position to begin collecting royalties arising from the resale of works by Canadian creators abroad immediately upon its adoption in Canada.