Sarkozy starts new fight against Resale Right for artists’ heirs

PERSONAL intervention by French President Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the stakes in the battle over extending the Artist's Resale Right (Droit de Suite) to the heirs of dead artists.

President Sarkozy has written to European Union President Jose Manuel Barroso calling for the ARR to be limited to living artists indefinitely across the EU. The UK are campaigning for the extension of the ARR to heirs to be put off from 2010 to 2012.

The French President's approach represents a sea change in his country's policy, which now goes even further than campaigners in the UK had dared hope for in attempting to put off the extension of the right, which they believe will damage the domestic art market.

M. Sarkozy is unhappy that France should be subject to the ARR - particularly without enjoying the derogation that the UK has won - when other major art markets around the world, such as the US and Switzerland, have no plans to introduce it.

The EU directive that imposed the ARR on the UK and France stipulated that the object was to persuade the rest of the world to adopt the policy, but so far non-EU countries who have considered the scheme have rejected it.

President Sarkozy's personal intervention comes just as the UK government concluded their consultation on whether to pursue the derogation to 2012 or end it in 2010.

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