Memorandum submitted by Mr Anthony Green
"Droit de Suite"—a levy
imposed by the European Union (nobody asked my opinion!).
This bureaucratic intervention will really only
benefit the super-famous and financially already secure few (Picasso,
Chagall, Warhol etc), their widows—and their lawyers.
I have traded as a professional painter for
40 years, exhibiting in 100 one-person shows in the UK and around
the world. I earn a modest but comfortable living—despite
never owning a new motorcar or a house in a London postal district!
When my work comes up at auction it fetches (1996-2005) about
60% of my current market prices—slightly embarrassing to
say the least.
Nobody forced me to sell my paintings for £50
in 1962 or £750 in 1976—but because they were bought
at those prices then, it allows me to sell an equivalent work
for £8,000 in 2005. Good luck to those early buyers and agents!
It would be puerile to blackmail them intellectually into giving
me a sweetener now just because I have been increasingly and modestly
successful. If my work was still very cheap, should I return those
early fans their money while they foreclose on my palette and
paints? I think not! I certainly don't want to have an automatic
resale right attached to my new work since this might well affect
the price. I can charge, with buyers asking for a corresponding
discount to take account of this.
Don't throttle the art world with "School
of Paris" bureaucracy (thought up pre-1939)—just let
me and my fellow artists, our agents and dealers get on with the
business of trading freely with brave collectors and prescient
fans.
1 March 2005
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