Resale Conflicts

Mark Grotjahn's Untitled 

The intense debate over artist resale rights in the U.S just moved up a notch. Many art observers around the world were surprised to learn that big time Los Angles art collector Dean Valentine agreed to pay resale royalties to artist Mark Grotjahn in order to settle a lawsuit. Grotjahn, who has many paintings that have been over a million dollars at auction, sued Valentine early 2010, after the collector resold several of Grotjahn's works at a profit without the state-mandated 5% royalty,according to court papers.

Under the terms of the California Resale Royalty Act or the CRRA an artist is entitled to five percent of the amount of sale whenever a work of fine art is resold and either the seller resides in California or the sale takes place in California.

After months of legal wrangling, during which the case was shifted from state to federal court, and then ultimately remanded back to state court, Valentine agreed to pay the royalties, plus interest, as well as a portion of the attorney fees incurred by Grotjahn. The settlement amount totaled just over $150,000. Of this, roughly $70,000 was allocated to address royalty fees while approximately $85,000 was for Grotjahn’s legal fees

Of course the collector was wrong he took someones painting made copies of it and sold it and gave 0 amount of revenue to the artist. Leave a comment down below telling me who was right in the situation.