Resale Royalties

One of the major talking points in the art world of late has been resale royalties. For those of you who are not familiar with the art market and royalties for artists, in most countries artists only get paid when an artwork is sold for the first time on the primary market. For many years there has been a call for artists to receive some sort of financial remuneration for each subsequent sale of their artwork after the artwork leaves the hands of the artist. After all, other people are making money off the artists work so why shouldn't the artist get a share.

There has of course been opposition to resale royalties by many people in the art market because it would mean that they would have higher costs and therefore would either have to pass the costs onto the vendors or take a cut in profits. Either way, the art market has generally been against the idea. I suppose one needs to look at the big picture and take into account that artists need money to live and produce art so by funding the arts through resale royalties, more artists are likely to be able to work as artists full time and support themselves. Better funding also means that artists will be able to spend more time and effort on their work thus producing more work and better quality work boosting the art market as a whole.

There are of course limits and regulations that need to be put in place for resale royalties in order for the art market to not be too affected. The UK has successfully implemented resale royalties without a negative affect to the art market so it should only be a matter of time before other countries follow suit.

Copyright Gripes

One of my many functions in the art world is as a copyright consultant and as a copyright consultant there are some things that I would like to clear up in regards to visual art and copyright that apply to anyone who has anything at all to do with art.

1. Owning an artwork does not give you ownership of copyright.
2. Copyright stays with the artist unless they have legally signed it over to someone else (or copyright has expired)
3. Permission is required to reproduce an image of an artists work in almost every situation such as on the internet, in magazines, in newspapers, on posters etc.
4. Many artists are members of copyright collection agency's who should be contacted as a first port of call if you would like to reproduce a work (eg. http://www.viscopy.com)
5. Fees are payable to the artist if reproductions of an image of their artwork is used
6. Artists have the right to:
• be attributed as creator of your works;
• take action if your work is falsely attributed; and
• take action if your work is distorted or treated in a way that is prejudicial to your honour or reputation

More info on copyright here: http://www.copyright.org.au/information/basics.htm

Copyright is a very serious issue within the visual arts and is one that everyone involved should take responsibility for. After all, why should someone else profit from an artists image without the artist receiving some sort of compensation. Artists are not charities and struggle enough as it is so do the art world a favour and be aware of your copyright responsibilities and adhere to the copyright laws.

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BOOOOOORRIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGG !!!

One of the things that annoys me most is art critics and journalists who seem to go out of there way to write long, drawn out articles in mainstream publications such as newspapers that sound more like an in depth diagnosis of a medical condition by a neurosurgeon than an interesting, entertaining piece of writing. It baffles me why art critics and journalists continue to regurgitate mind numbing technical critiques which express incoherent and arrogant opinions which seem to me to be more of a excercise in self gratification or an attempt to provide proof of an extensive technical vocabulary than coherent, applicable writing on visual art.

It has, and continues to be my mission to bring the fun back into art and make people want to read about and experience art as opposed to being exposed to intimidating, boring and incoherent ramblings by insecure, out of touch journos.

Onwards and upwards!!!

War Art

It never ceases to amaze me how the art market can be influenced by so many different factors. Take the recent interest in Australian war art which has been brought on by the impending 100th anniversary of the ANZAC Gallipoli landing of World War One which will take place in 2015 and also because the last remaining Australian WW1 veteran died in 2005. Prices for Australian and New Zealand war art have boomed as people try to secure the small amount of war related artworks that are not in private collections. Another example of how the art market can react to almost any event...........

Welcome to Art Market Guru blog

Well hello to everyone out there in world wide web land, my name is Nicholas Forrest and this is my new blog. You may have visited my other blogs at http://www.artforprofits.com and http://www.artmarketblog.com which are my more "serious" blogs about how to invest in art but I have decided that I wanted another blog where I could basically say whatever I wanted so here it is. You can check out this particular blog at http://www.artmarketguru.com which makes it a bit easier to find.
I will endeavour to tell you a bit more about myself over the next few posts and give you a big more of an idea of what I do and how I came to do it.

On a separate issue I just booked a trip to the UK and France for July, WOO!!!, which I am very excited about. I will be spending most of my time visiting galleries and soaking up the history and culture of Europe but I will also find some time to indulge in some of my other passions namely car racing. I will also be doing some study with Christies which will be awesome and will give me a chance to get an insiders view to the European art market.

In the mean time why don't you check out my new art investment video that I just did!!!