{"id":309250,"date":"2025-11-27T01:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309250\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T01:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:25:12","slug":"artists-resale-right-sparks-debate-among-inuit-art-galleries-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/309250\/","title":{"rendered":"Artists\u2019 resale right sparks debate among Inuit art galleries, advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright change would give artists or their estates 5 per cent royalty on resales over $1,000<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s plan to introduce an Artist Resale Right in Canada has drawn both support and criticism, particularly from those in the Inuit art market.<\/p>\n

The Artist Resale Right would ensure that when a piece of art is resold through a gallery or auction, the artist or their family receives five per cent of the resale price for artwork worth $1,000 or more.<\/p>\n

The provision was announced in the most recent federal budget and still needs amendments to the Copyright Act in order to become official.<\/p>\n

Theresie Tungilik, an Inuk artist and past president of the\u00a0national non-profit Canadian Artists\u2019 Representation\/Le Front des Artistes Canadien, said the measure could benefit Inuit artists who rely on their artwork as their primary source of income.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only see it as a very positive thing, because many of the artists that have made a name for themselves did so over time as collectors sought their artwork,\u201d Tungilik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really enhanced the profile of the Inuit artist and the artist community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tungilik used Kenojuak Ashevak\u2019s The Enchanted Owl as an example. In 1960, the first print sold for $75 and Ashevak received approximately $24. In November 2018, a print sold at auction<\/a> for a record-breaking $216,000, and in December 2024, another print in blue ink sold for $366,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHad she been alive, or had she named an estate or family member to manage her artwork, that money would go to her estate,\u201d Tungilik said.<\/p>\n

Some art dealers caution the Artist Resale Right may present practical challenges, especially in the Inuit art market.<\/p>\n

John Houston, of Houston North Gallery in Halifax, which specializes in Inuit art, expressed support for it in principle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that France has had these resale rights in place for over 100 years. We\u2019re well behind the times on this one,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think this is our opportunity for Canada to walk its talk in terms of reconciliation and reward the genius of Inuit art and their estates.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he asked how it would be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho monitors this without creating a huge bureaucracy?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these artists have passed on. Who does the payment go to? The estate? But in many cases, identifying that can take a year or more, from my own experience trying to locate families for film rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston added that unsigned or illegibly signed pieces are harder to attribute.<\/p>\n

Tungilik said if the Artist Resale Right is implemented, Canadian Artists\u2019 Representation\/Le Front des Artistes Canadien would appoint a copyright management organization to track and distribute artists\u2019 payments.<\/p>\n

She emphasized the importance of artists signing their work to ensure royalties reach them or their estates.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years now, many of the older artists have only been signing their artwork in syllabics. Those are still recognizable, and so that makes it traceable,\u201d Tungilik said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Theresie Tungilik, past president of Canadian Artists\u2019 Representation\/Le Front des Artistes Canadien, says galleries benefit from artists\u2019 work. A resale royalty would ensure artists also share in the profits. (Photo by Charlene Panigoniak\/courtesy of Theresie Tungilik)<\/p>\n

Mark London, a Montreal-based art dealer specializing in Inuit art, shared other concerns.<\/p>\n

He said implementing an Artist Resale Right could unintentionally discourage galleries from buying Inuit art because the resale royalty would act as an extra \u201ctax\u201d on these pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost art isn\u2019t bought for resale anyway. It\u2019s for enjoyment,\u201d he said. \u201cResale happens when someone dies or redecorates. The number of works that sell for big profits is very small. You can\u2019t cherry-pick the Enchanted Owl.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, about 13,650 Inuit artists produced visual arts and crafts with roughly 4,230 creating works for income. The sector contributed $87.2 million to Canada\u2019s gross domestic product and supported more than 2,700 full-time jobs across visual arts, performing arts and media, according to the National Indigenous Economic Development Board.<\/p>\n

Tungilik acknowledged the concerns but said fair compensation for all Canadian artists is the priority.<\/p>\n

On its website, Tungilik\u2019s organization states that both the seller and the art market agent would share responsibility for the royalty payment.<\/p>\n

She said galleries raise prices to cover their own operating costs, noting \u201ca gallery selling an art piece for $50,000 when the artist received only $500 \u2014 and these northern artists still have to pay their own water bills and rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists are businesspeople too, and if there were no artists, would the galleries exist?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Copyright change would give artists or their estates 5 per cent royalty on resales over $1,000 The federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-309250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}