The impact of the resale right on the British art market

The Artists’ Resale Right (ARR) is a specific form of copyright applied to the resale of graphic and plastic artworks in certain countries. In the academic literature, criticism of the ARR highlights different issues, among them, market distortion of competition. This paper aims to assess the impact of ARR on sales relocation. Since the UK’s recent implementation of the ARR, this country is a well appropriated example. Whereas in 2006 the right applied only to living artists, in 2012, it was extended to include artists who had died within the past 70 years. Our empirical analysis is based on public auctions of the most valuable works sold worldwide between 2002 and 2014. The British ARR stipulates several reliable control groups and allows for difference-in-difference to be used. Contrary to common belief, we are discovering that the ARR does not penalize the UK art market; the results are robust regardless of the method used