The Irish artist Robert Ballagh has written to Leo Varadkar, the tanaiste and enterprise minister, to highlight persistent failings in the state’s artists’ resale rights legislation. Ballagh claims he has not been paid thousands of euros owed to him as a result of the “ineffective” legislation.
The artists’ resale right, or droit de suite (right to follow), came in across Europe as part of an EU directive issued in 2001. It entitles artists to a royalty when their work is resold by auction houses, galleries or art dealers. Ireland was obliged to introduce legislation by the start of 2006 but did not do so until Ballagh took the state to the High Court in June 2006. He was awarded €5,000 in compensatory damages for the