UK Art Copyright Laws concerning rental rights and company insolvency
Dave W
I am a young artist. I was selling my paintings through a company that
has gone into liquidation. After I consigned the paintings, I
discovered that the company was selling the work for 5 times the price
that we had agreed was the market price, placing the artworks in
storage and then renting the paintings out to provide a 10-15% return
for the "investors" who purchased the artworks.
I believe that my moral rights as an artist have been infringed by
these successive exploitations of my work. The knowledge of high
street solicitors and liquidation practitioners regarding art law
seems very limited. I am therefore attempting to establish for
myself if there is any moral legislation in the UK, which provides
protection to artists regarding the rental of artistic works for
commercial purposes.
The new Droit de Suite "resale right" does not seem to make any
provision for the rental of artistic works; it therefore seems
sensible to me that legislation in this area might already exist, most
likely stemming from the 1992 Directive 92/100/EEC on rental and
lending rights. The Directive seems clear enough on this issue,
giving the artist the right to prohibit the rental of art works, and
an "unwaivable right to equitable remuneration". But the CDPA seems
only to refer to a copyright infringement by the rental of a copy,
i.e. the infringement relates to the act of copying. Does anyone know
where UK law stands concerning the rental of original artistic works.
Can anyone point me in the direction of specific UK legislation?
The paintings were sold by the company long before insolvency was
declared, but I was not paid for the paintings and ownership of the
paintings was determined to be with the the "investors" who purchased
the art works. I am now trying to prevent further exploitations of my
work. A new company has started up, publishing several images of the
paintings on the internet without my permission offering the works for
sale and rent. The "investors" are under are under the impression
that the art they purchased can simply be rented out through this
company for an indefinite period to provide them with an income
without any ethical or economic consideration to the artist. I would
like to prevent the new company from offering the paintings for lease.
Does anyone have any knowledge about these issues? I am particularly
interested in establishing if the rental of an artistic work for
comericial purposes with the copyright remaining with the artist is an
infringment of copyright law (i.e. because it is an original work and
not a copy).
Also, if this law was infringed on such a large scale (approx. 2,000
works of art, and many artists owed thousands of pounds) and it was
central to the business practice of the liquidated company. Does this
mean that the director of the company must become personally liable to
pay the artists and everyone else who is owed money by the company? I
am talking about the money owed for the sale of the paintings(although
under the 1992 Directive it seems that there might be a case for
sueing for royalties, as the profits from renting the paintings were
passed to the owner of the painting and the company and not the owner
of the copyright.)
I am desperate. Any response will be greatly appreciated.