Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) was formally established as a collecting society in June 2006 to collect resale royalties (Droit de Suite) on behalf of artists in the UK. ACS was set in up in response to requests from artists and from their dealers via The British Art Market Federation (BAMF) and The Society of London Art Dealers (SLAD) for artists to be provided with a choice of collecting society for the management of Artist’s Resale Right.
ACS has been set up in response to the EC’s Directive and new UK legislation on Artist’s Resale Right, which provides artists with the right to receive a royalty, based on the price obtained for any resale of an original work of art, subsequent to the first transfer by the artist.
ACS will collect Artist’s Resale Right on behalf of member artists from dealers, agents, auction houses and other art market professionals and distribute the royalty payments directly to the artist.
ACS is the only collecting society incorporated solely for the collection of Artist’s Resale Right, which means that unlike other collecting societies, we are 100% dedicated to administering the most time and cost efficient collection and distribution procedures of the right to our member artists
Before legislating to implement the European Union Directive on Artist’s Resale Right, the British Government carried out an extensive public consultation. In its response to this, the British Art Market Federation (BAMF) expressed concern that compulsory collective management through a sole collecting agency would “restrict the freedom of individual artists to make their own, possibly cheaper, arrangements, to collect the levy”.
The minister responsible, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, confirmed that compulsory collective management did not confer a monopoly on any one collecting agency and that others could offer artists alternative services.In response to this, Harriet Bridgeman, Managing Director of The Bridgeman Art Library chose to sponsor the establishment of an alternative collecting society.
As a proven patron of artists and the art trade, supporting artists through the promotion of their works all over the world and distributing copyright royalties back to those artists in a timely fashion since 1972, Harriet Bridgeman and her fine arts and reprographic service, The Bridgeman Art Library was the obvious platform from which to launch a new, alternative collecting society.
After studying the Artist’s Resale Right Regulations and talking to artists, art market professionals and other collecting societies, The Bridgeman Art Library chose to sponsor a new, independent collecting society.
ACS was formed as a not for profit ‘Community Interest Company’and registered as such with Companies House in June 2006. We chose to form ACS as a ‘Community Interest Company’ to provide member artists with an added factor of confidence in their knowledge that Companies House will keep a watchful eye over our collecting society to ensure that we continue to operate in the best interests of our member artists.
If you are an artist interested in joining ACS click here to register.
If you are an art market professional, please click here for more information on how we can help you.
