Artists’ resale rights supported by Emma McClarkin MEP

East Midlands Conservative MEP Emma McClarkin has cautiously welcomed the extension of Artists resale rights allowing living artists to receive a share of the resale value of their work.

Miss McClarkin was speaking after the vote in the European Parliament on the issue:

“The parliament has supported that it is fair to allow living artists to receive a share of the resale value of their work. In this way it recognises the contribution that the artist has made to cultural heritage.

“However, while supporting this Directive I would also note caution and ask that the Commission recognises that there is still work to be done on making sure we protect the arts market here in Europe. Such a Directive will continue to negatively affect particularly small business in Europe, for example small specialist auction houses, unless the Commission does more work to look at the costs and bureaucratic burdens placed on small dealers in addition to the extended rights as costs to art sales.

“The Commission should also actively encourage third countries to introduce resale rights, otherwise we could see a mass exodus to outside markets where such levies do not apply. I welcome the call in this report for an assessment of the impacts of this Directive and would hope that the Commission addresses any lack of global competitiveness arising from this.”