Levy To Crush UK Art Market

Severe damage will be caused to Britain's growing 600 million pound market in modern and contemporary art - a quarter of the world's total - when a EU levy comes into force next year. The effects of 'droit de suite', a sliding scale levy paid by the vendor of a work of art to a living artist or to an artist's family for 70 years after his or her death, looks certain to drive business out of Britain to non-EU countries such as the US and Switzerland. It will be levied on the work of living artists resold in Britain next year and - from 2012 - on art produced by those who have been dead for up to 70 years. For the full story - click the title Irish Art