Artist’s Resale Right Regulations

My Lords, following the approval of these regulations, artist’s resale right will be introduced in the UK. In response to the noble Lord’s amendment, I believe I have dealt with some of the most substantial issues in my opening speech, but I shall add the following points. Before I do so, I should say to the noble Viscount, Lord Astor, that in no way did I say that the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee did not take the issue seriously; what I said was that it did not give any weight to the interests of the artists, which is a quite different issue. I declare a life-long interest. I have collected works of art all my life. My father put together one of the great collections of modern art in the 20th century, and I was brought up in a world of artists, art dealers and auction houses. It is a world that I know very well and a world for which I have a great deal of respect. I should also make it clear that what we are debating is whether the threshold should be €1,000 or €3,000. That has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the question of the relocation of sales of works of art; at the top end, there is no way that works of art that are worth €2,000 are going to be taken to Switzerland or America to be sold. That is a complete fantasy. What we are talking about is a question of balancing costs and benefits to artists. The noble Lord, Lord Brooke, says that what we have done will shake the confidence of the art market. At a time when we have made it clear that we will seek to make the derogation for deceased artists permanent, I really cannot see that that argument has any force. The noble Lord, Lord Luke, asked why we had not made use of the derogation for deceased artists to 2012. The answer is that you can do that on the basis of the experience that you have had before that period; you cannot do it now when you have no experience of it. We will have to do surveys of what has happened and what the impact has been, and then in due course, around 2009, on the basis of that evidence make the case for extending the derogation. I also make it clear—when people talk about gold-plating and piling on regulations—that the administrative systems will have to be put in place whether we are talking about a threshold of €1,000 or of €3,000. Those administrative systems have to be put in place; the question is whether they will be used for a larger number of works of art. I will turn to the question of the figure of €1,000 or €3,000. By laying the threshold to €1,000, we calculate that about 800 extra works of art are likely to be included. Even if we take what we believe to be an extraordinary cost per transaction of £28 produced by the British Art Market Foundation—on the basis of no calculation whatever but just a figure taken out of the air—the total cost of those 800 works of art would be £22,400 for the whole art market per annum. That has to be seen in the context of the total value of the UK’s art market of £4.6 billion. I have very great respect for the art dealers of this country. I believe that they would consider that paying £22,400 to help young artists—who at the end of the day produce the material that their livelihood is based on—was a very small price to pay. I say that it is an extraordinary figure because it is almost impossible to see how one would get a calculation as high as that. I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, that quite a lot of operations have to be done, but they do not have to be done for very many items. I also agree that they would have to check DACS’s figures, but even then I cannot see how you could possibly get to a figure of £28. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, that I was a finance director for 17 years. I have looked at cost estimates, and £1 is a great deal nearer the reality in any competent organisation than £28. Indeed, at the last meeting that I had with the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, in happier times, he congratulated me on the thoroughness with which we were looking at the figures. Let us be clear; we have looked at these figures in detail, and I am absolutely convinced that the figure is much closer to £1 than £28. Even if you take the figure of £28, the total cost of the difference between €1,000 and €3,000 is £22,400.