Artist’s resale rights must be paid by sellers, French court rules

THE ART NEWSPAPER | Vincent Noce:

There has been a new twist to an eight-year old legal battle between Christie’s and France’s associations of antique dealers and galleries. A French court stated on 24 March that artist’s resale rights must be paid by sellers, with no exception. Saying that the ruling might hurt the contemporary art market, the auction house is now challenging the judgement in front of the high court. The feud, which has already resulted in several contradictory judgements, began in 2009 at the €375m Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale, when Christie’s demanded the buyers pay the resale rights owed to contemporary artists… Read more

Image: Christie’s will take the case back to the Supreme Court