Opinion A slice of the pie

Two years after his death,Mehta’s paintings continue to rake in big bucks at auctions. A small untitled canvas is up for auction next week,its price estimated between Rs 4 crore and Rs 6 crore. The situation has not changed: there is no law regarding royalties on resale of visual arts,and the proposal by a few private galleries and auction houses to award 7 per cent royalty to artists has not become a reality.

While artists like Krishen Khanna have become indifferent to the debate on royalties on the resale of artwork — “I am quite fed up with it and cannot be bothered any more. It makes more sense to just paint in my studio,” says Khanna — others like Akbar Padamsee are indignant about not having a bigger stake in what has been a prosperous decade for Indian art in the primary (gallery sales) and secondary (auction sales) markets.

Padamsee agrees that there has been a “trickle-down effect”,with auction houses increasing the base prices of works,and auction prices pumping up the prices in the primary market. But artists like him wonder why they or their next of kin should not benefit from sales in the secondary market as well. To circumvent this problem,Padamsee,through his dealer and gallery owner Dadiba Pundole,has directly entered his painting ‘Meta-Scape’ (2006) for a Sotherby’s auction. A deal between the artist and the gallery owner ensures that the former gets a lion’s share of the sale. Padamsee points out that the Paris-based Hotel Drouot is the only auction house where 3 per cent of the sale goes to the artist.

Dinesh Vazirani,of the online art auction house Saffronart,says in France there has been an attempt to follow the Drouot formula and to give artists 5 per cent royalty on the resale of their works. It didn’t work because there was no central agency to keep track of resales and calculate royalties.

There is an exemplary law in this regard in Australia. The Resale Royalty Rights for Visual Arts Act was passed in 2009. Under this,artists are entitled to 5 per cent royalty on the resale of their works. The act imposes legal obligations on art market professionals like auctioneers and gallery and museum owners. A collecting society has been appointed to keep track of sales and to ensure that royalties go to deserving parties.

Gallery owners like Geeta Mehra of Sakshi Gallery have been involved in the discussion on setting up a similar panel or a body in India that would monitor the sale of artwork and ensure the payment of royalties. She says the nascent Indian art market does not have the infrastructure to support such a system. A large government body has to be appointed for the purpose. For this the government would need to get involved in the art market. That could be tricky because it is now being solely driven by private forces.

Also,for some investors,the concept of resale royalty goes against the very nature of ownership and gains involved. They argue that it works contrary to market forces. There is also the fear that artists may manipulate the market directly to gain 5 or 7 per cent in sales.

In the booming Indian art market,the issue of resale royalty needs to be settled.

georgina.maddox@expressindia.com