The UK's Artist Resale Right (ARR), which entitles visual artists to royalties from secondary market sales of their work, marks its 20th anniversary. Initially met with fierce opposition from auction houses and dealers who feared it would drive high-value sales offshore, the scheme is now broadly accepted by the trade, with collecting society Dacs having distributed over £144 million to nearly 7,000 artists and heirs.
The scheme's success in the UK has fueled a push for its global adoption to level the playing field with major art markets like the US and China, which lack such laws. While ARR is crucial for supporting artists' estates and emerging practitioners, its administrative cost remains a point of contention for London-based dealers competing with New York and Hong Kong. The anniversary highlights the ongoing debate about fair compensation for artists in a globalized market.