THE EUROPEAN Union’s highest court has upheld a French law that gives five family members of the painter Salvador Dalí the right to royalty payments from the resale in France of art he bequeathed to Spain.
The case before the European Court of Justice centres on the right of artists to share in any increase in its value after the first sale of the work, a perennial bone of contention in the art world. It is often the case that the highest prices are realised long after the artist first sells the work.
Famous for his mind-stretching surrealist images, Dalí died a widower in 1989 and left no children or descendants. While he left five heirs-at-law who were family members, Dalí established the Spanish state as the sole legatee over his intellectual property seven years before his death.
Those rights are administered by the Fundación Gala Salvador Dalí, a foundation established under Spanish law which was created in 1983 at his own initiative. The judgment stems from a 2001 directive that gave artists’ beneficiaries a share in resale prices. The right benefits the artists throughout their life and, thereafter, those entitled under them for 70 years after their death.
In 2005 the group that collects royalties for Spain took legal action against its French counterpart to reclaim royalties paid to Dalí’s heirs. However, the court ruled yesterday that a French law dating from 1920 that limits the beneficiaries of resale royalties to the artist’s heirs and excludes any other legatees was compatible with the directive.
“It is permissible for member states to make their own legislative choice in determining the categories of persons capable of benefiting from the resale right after the death of the author of a work of art,” the ruling said.
While the EU directive aimed to give artists a share in the economic success of their work, it was also designed to remove the concentration of art sales from countries in which resale rights were not already applied.
The court said there was no need to eliminate differences between national laws that cannot be expected to affect the functioning of the EU’s internal market, which aims to create equal conditions for all market participants in the union. This included legislation that determines the categories of people capable of benefiting from the resale right after the death of the author of a work of art.
