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John McPhail, now a partner at Finlaysons, has pointed out that in this week's Budget the Government has buried the proposal for a resale royalty on visual artists' creations.

In a result which might be thought a victory for practicality over those worshipping at the shrine of Continental spriritualism, the Government noted:

Research shows that resale royalty schemes bring most benefit to successful late career artists and the estates of deceased artists.

It would bring little advantage to the majority of Australian artists whose work rarely reaches the secondary art market and would also adversely affect commercial galleries, art dealers, auction houses and investors.

Instead, the Government will provide $6 million over 4 years to support visual artists including a $500,000 (or $0.5 million) training package to

help visual artists enhance their engagement with the commercial arts market and an additional $1 million per annum to the National Arts and Crafts Industry Support (NACIS) program to strengthen the significant Indigenous arts industry in regional and remote communities.

The Media Release including other funding numbers can be found here.

Links to the (for now) rejected Myers' Report, the Government's own discussion paper and the 34 submissions here.

Posted: Friday - 12 May, 2006 at 05:47 PM         |


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