Hold thumbs for resale windfall
extensive experience in the music industry and other creative fields, is the managing director of the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (Dalro), a copyright protection agency that has been in existence since 1967.
He begins our interaction by telling me that an Irma Stern painting, Arab in Black, fetched more than R17.5-million at a UK auction in 2015. But because the artist’s resale right works on reciprocal agreements between countries, Stern’s estate was not able to collect any royalties on her behalf.
In other words, even though the artist’s resale right is in force in the UK, because this right is not law in South Africa, a resale royalty on the work was not due to the estate of the late South African painter.
“It makes a huge difference in an
Serobe says: “There are a lot of people active in the music space, for example, whereas in the visual arts space, there are very few people independently looking out for the interests of the artists. That has to change.”
The Copyright Alliance, of which Dalro and Aspire are members, is lobbying for artists’ rights to be written into law. There are also visual artists, authors and academic groups on opposing sides, accounting for hundreds of submissions to Parliament.
The trade and industry department-drafted Bill is currently being redrafted by a parliamentary committee, and interest groups are lobbying for it to be finalised this year.