I wonder - how will this affect you, if at all?

New regulations will shortly be laid before Parliament to turn a recent European Directive into UK law on 1 January 2006. This will introduce arguably the most important new right for artists in modern copyright history. It will entitle visual creators, whose work is protected by copyright, to a percentage share of the price every time their work is resold by a gallery, dealer or auction house. Artists will earn royalties from the resale of their work and share in its commercial success and increasing value.

Though at times controversial, the Artist’s Resale Right legislation is coming to the UK and the question now being asked by the government is not whether it should be implemented, but how.
Previous debates about the Artist’s Resale Right have been very heated, and the major auction houses and art galleries have resisted their introduction. However, Europe was convinced by the argument that individual artists in some Member States were receiving a raw deal under the previous arrangements and that proper provision should be made for them to share in the future resale revenues of the work that they have created.

Member States considerable flexibility in choosing the date of introduction of benefits to the beneficiaries of deceased artists, the value of sales at which artists become entitled to a resale right, the method of collection of the royalties, and the percentage of resale value which should accrue to the original artist.