Today Australia’s resale law for art comes into effect. From now on all art sales over $1,000 will have to return 5 percent to the artist or the artist’s estate. As you can imagine, most of the Australian art dealers (like New Zealand’s when a similar scheme was promoted) have decided this will probably mean the end of the world, profitability and careers. New Zealand’s National Government has dumped the idea of a royalty scheme so our art market will probably survive annihilation and our artists will be saved the humiliation of becoming fat and rich.
