Archive of Henry Lydiate‘s Artlaw column, published in Art Monthly since 1976. Have a legal question about your career? Check our Directory or send us a legal query.
Riding the D-Train (part 2)
A perennial problem has arisen, partly because inspectors generally regard part time teaching as a contract of service, taxable under Schedule E. Part time Teaching: Problems and Solutions A perennial problem has arisen, partly because…
VAT of confusion
There is much confusion over the new VAT rules due to come into force on January 1st 1993 as part of the European Single Market. Artlaw has been trying to unravel a complex and developing situation with…
After Sales
The last two articles in this series have dealt with selling work: the use of some written form of agreement was shown to be essential and of considerable advantage to artists and buyers. If the suggested Artist's Contract…
Nightmare of Planning Laws: Westminster City Council V Time Life
Westminster City Council and publishers Time Life are currently heading towards a unique legal dispute over artworks at the Time Life building in New Bond Street, London. It involves a…
Disclaimers
An artist recently raised an important question about leaving work with a gallery who had insisted on disclaiming liability for taking care of the work whilst in their possession. You say you never compromise With the mystery tramp but…
Gift Aid: an Arts Boon?
October 1 1990 saw the start of the scheme known as Gift Aid which was announced by the Chancellor the previous March. The simplicity of the scheme and its benefits have yet to be taken…
Art and Money
Warhol's US dollar bills were sold for more than their denominational value; and Duchamp paid his dentist's bill by drawing a 400F note which was accepted in payment. What do you think of the new £5 note?…
Money
Income Tax and the achievement and maintenance of self employment or ‘freelance’ status is a recurring theme of these pieces; as is the link between freelance working and claiming welfare benefits (although the names of those benefits have changed…
The Tax Man Cometh
Reading last month’s Page Two (Art Monthly No.74) contribution by Jennifer Oille, reporting the apparently unfair and inequitable treatment of artists under Canadian tax laws, stimulated some comparison with our own regime; sharing these thoughts might…
Riding the D-Train (part 1)
Because of the unique nature of every practitioner’s financial circumstances, it has seemed impossible over the past nine years to address, in a meaningful way in this column, one vital issue. My failure to do…
The Values of Insurance
Valuing artworks for any purpose can be a headache. Firstly, there is what might be termed intrinsic value – many hours can be enjoyed arguing on an intellectual basis, but there is no universally applicable magic…
Vexing Art Toll?
VAT is an accountancy nightmare but, handled properly, can be turned to good advantage – even for artists. Myths abound; perhaps they can be dispelled. Let’s try. Every artist should ask the following questions: Do I carry…
Severance
“'There must be some way out of here', said the joker to the thief, 'there's too much confusion, I can't get no relief. Businessmen they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my earth, none of them along the line know…
Polaroid: The Gift That Doesn’t Keep Giving
Clear and unambiguous documentary evidence of such gifts is needed for the recipient to be sure that the object received was a gift after all – and the reason it was given. These…
Sellers, Buyers and Auctioneers Beware
London is arguably the world’s leading art auction location, and the oldest. Sotheby’s was established in 1744, Christie’s in 1796, Bonham’s in 1793 and Phillips in 1796. The legal and business framework for auctions in…
A Tax on Art Schools
Art education has undergone radical changes in recent years not just in the content of courses but also in the funding and administration of the colleges themselves. In fact, few art schools exist as such,…
Public Art Liabilities
Within four days of the opening to the public of Ai Weiwei’s interactive installation, Sunflower Seeds, 2010, at Tate Modern, the public was prevented from walking on 100m handcrafted life sized porcelain sunflower seed husks spread over…
Oh! My Precious
One fine day composer John Casken arose to discover that he had won the first Britten Award for composition worth £10,000. He won the money for Golem, a work for eight singers accompanied by 11 instrumentalists and…