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.
Moral Lights
Appropriation – without a capital ‘a’ – of images by artists has been common practice throughout art history. Artists whose images are appropriated can and do use national and international copyright laws to take legal action against unlawful…
If I sell artwork through a gallery based abroad, can they deduct ‘withholding tax’ on my earnings?
‘Withholding tax’ is an amount held by the party making a payment to a payee, which will be paid to the taxation authorities.…
Guides to Interpretation
The complicated issues of how legal frameworks impact on artistic freedom of expression are explored in a new series of guides covering counter terrorism, public order, child protection, race and religion, and obscene publications. The series, badged…
Global Thinking
Artists’ bargaining power in the global art ecosystem is weak or non existent because the vast majority operate as freelance solo practitioners and, unlike other creative artists, visual artists only occasionally collectivise to create common or shared interest…
Film and Video
The Whitechapel Gallery’s current survey show ‘Electronic Superhighway 2016 1966’, is a reflection of the extent to which digital media are now being used by increasing numbers of visual artists, especially as the costs of equipment have…
Conservation
Deterioration and degradation of contemporary art increasingly concerns specialists in the field of conservation and restoration. Such experts are being asked for advice and assistance from key actors – including artists – in the art ecosystem, about work made…
Christoph Büchel v Mass MoCA
In September 2007 a US court gave judgement in an unprecedented case that focused on the meaning of authorship. It concerned an installation, Training Ground For Democracy, commissioned by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art…
Banking on Trust
‘Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them’. This ancient saying by Solon, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, still resonates today in the arena of deal making…
Do you any up to date information regarding VAT treatment on commission owed to individual non-VAT registered artists from galleries that may or may not be VAT registered themselves?
The legal and business situation discussed in the 1979 article posted…
What should I consider when deciding whether or not to sign a written agreement with a gallery?
In particular, should I agree to a 12 month notice period and a commission on sales at exhibitions outside the gallery? The wisdom…
Can I sell an artwork that uses letters from an existing font, e.g. from a word processing program?
There are two key legal issues to consider here: whether the work will infringe copyright and the terms of the licence under…
Can I illustrate a mass-produced object such as a toy in an artwork without infringing copyright laws?
The answer is highly complex but an indication of the issues involved is given by the following simplified comments on a highly complex…
Permission to Sell
Contemporary art sales are attracting increasing media interest beyond the usual art industry suspects, particularly from financial journals and commentators. There is a significant boom in both the number of sales and of the prices of works…
Merchandising Rights Time Bomb
When an artwork is mass produced in three dimensions by or with the artist’s permission, UK law substantially reduces the artist’s copyright protection in the future. This rule is a time bomb: it operates only 25…
Regulating the Art Industry
Nouriel Roubini is a leading world economist, renowned for predicting the world economic downturn of 2007/8 years beforehand. At the World Economic Forum event at Davos in Switzerland in January 2015 he made a significant public…
Enforcement
Henry Moore’s daughter Mary Moore together with Maggi Hambling recently attracted media attention by publicly voicing their concerns about the failure of UK based art market professionals to pay the artist’s resale right (ARR). Such non compliant dealers and…
Small Claims
The knowledge economy is evolving into the network economy. Traditional business practices are rapidly changing accordingly. But the machinery of governments and legislatures grind at a much slower pace, often rendering business rules and regulations unfit for purpose.…
Changes to Permitted Uses
Changes to copyright law came into force in the UK on 1 June 2014, and implement policies developed by the EU aimed at facilitating use of creative works in the post digital age. UK’s Copyright, Designs…