"Droit de Suite" or Artist's Resale Right

"Droit de Suite" is a royalty payable to a qualifying artist or the artist's heirs each time a work is re-sold during the artist's lifetime and for a period up to 70 years following the artist's death. (Source: Christie's)

The "Droit de Suite" is a right recognized by the legislation of several member countries of the European Union and abroad with some differences between countries.

Note that if, up to recently, the application of this right was practically invisible to the buyer (the seller had pay it), a recent decision (2015, February #ECLI:EU:C:2015:119) of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has changed if not the obligation but the identity of the party who is to bear the load.  Now the seller (auction house, art gallery) can contractually pass on this burden to the buyer.

So get well informed about it before proceeding.   Is this applies to you? Use our calculator to measure its impact.

Tarif scale (dated June 2014)