The artist’s resale right
What the artist is owed when the work resells.
On a qualifying resale in the UK, a royalty is payable to the artist — or to their estate for 70 years after their death. It is cumulative like income tax, calculated on the resale price excluding VAT and buyer’s premium, and capped per work. It is the one line on an auction invoice that belongs to the artist rather than the house.
The calculator
Bands as in force from 2024-04-01, denominated in pounds. gov.uk’s own worked example — 200,000 yields 6,500 — is reproduced by this arithmetic and asserted by a test.
| Working | Amount |
|---|---|
| 4% on £50,000.00 = £2,000.00 | |
| 3% on £150,000.00 = £4,500.00 | |
| Royaltycumulative, like income tax | £6,500.00 |
Calculated on £200,000.00 — the resale price excluding VAT and buyer’s premium, which is the part readers get wrong. The threshold is £1,000.00; the cap is £12,500.00 per work. No VAT is charged on the royalty.
The bands
as of 2026-09-17 · in force from 2024-04-01 · UK · confirmed
| Royalty on this slice | Resale price band |
|---|---|
| 4% | up to £50,000 |
| 3% | up to £200,000 |
| 1% | up to £350,000 |
| 0.5% | up to £500,000 |
| 0.25% | above £500,000 |
Bands are cumulative: a £200,000 resale pays 4% on the first £50,000 and 3% on the next £150,000. Below £1,000 nothing is due; the royalty stops at £12,500 per work however high the price goes. Calculated on the resale price EXCLUDING VAT and buyer's premium.
Who pays it
| Legal liability | Joint and several between the seller and the seller's agent. Cannot be transferred or waived. |
| Economic cost | Can be allocated by contract, and auction houses commonly require the buyer to pay it. |
| In one line | Liability seller, cost usually buyer, by contract, in the UK. |
Confirmed: Sotheby's — states plainly that it collects the royalty from buyers on qualifying lots and adds it to the invoice.
Unconfirmed for Christie's London and Phillips London — so on any invoice this site computes, the royalty is shown as a conditional line, never as a certainty. That is the rule, not an omission.
When it is not due
- The 'bought as stock' exception: bought direct from the artist less than three years earlier and resold for GBP 10,000 or less.
- Private sales with no art market professional involved.
- Sales to public non-profit museums.
The calculator computes the royalty; whether it is due depends on these. A private sale between two people with no art market professional involved carries none at all.
Who collects it
DACS or ACS. Artists cannot claim directly from the trade.The right lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years.
Sources: gov.uk — Artist's Resale Right · Stephenson Harwood on ARR liability · Sotheby's Buy & Sell. Not legal or tax advice. Every figure here carries its date and its source: a major house’s own consumer page still described this threshold in euros more than two years after the UK scheme moved to pounds.