The Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) was established as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company in June 2006 to collect and distribute Artist’s Resale Right royalties (ARR) on behalf of member artists.

Many art market professionals (AMPs) and their artists were concerned by the monopolistic implications of having a single UK collecting society. In response to this, ACS was set up as an alternative. By providing artists with a choice of collecting society, ACS ensures the rate of commission charged on the collection of ARR remains competitive.

The benefits of working with ACS

  • ACS works hard to offer a personal service for dealers as well as artists. To relieve you of as much of the administrative burden of ARR as possible, we provide a variety of methods for reporting sales and are always happy to help you with any queries.
  • ACS provides auction houses and dealers with a complete list of members together with our quarterly requests for information, making it as easy as possible for you to check for eligible sales.
  • We offer all registered AMPs a secure online account, sales reporting facilities and secure access to invoice and payments history for all your ARR transactions.
  • Where an auction house or dealer would rather send us full sales reports, ACS will check the reports for our member artists ourselves.
  • ACS currently maintains contact with thousands of AMPs in the UK alone. We work hard to keep this information up to date so that we can keep track of all eligible sales of our member artists’ work.

What do you need to know? 

Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) entitles an artist to a royalty every time their work is re-sold by an Art Market Professional (AMP). ARR is calculated in accordance with the UK Regulations on Artist’s Resale Right, using the following sliding scale.
Sliding Scale
 Resale price (€)
  Royalty percentage amount due
 From 1,000 to 50,000  4.00%
 From 50,000.01 to 200,000  3.00%
 From 200,000.01 to 350,000  1.00%
 From 350,000.01 to 500,000  0.50%
 Over 500,000  0.25%

ACS has created a calculator to work out the exact amount of ARR due on any sale. To use this calculator, click here.

ARR is collected from AMPs by a collecting society and then distributed to the artist.

The royalty is capped at a maximum of €12,500.00.
Artists must select a collecting society which they feel best represents their needs.
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What do you need to do?

Under the UK Regulations, AMPs should:

  • Report any eligible sales to the relevant collecting society within 90 days of receiving a request for information from that collecting society.
  • Pay the resale royalty due on any eligible sale.

What is an eligible sale?

Under the UK Regulations, ARR applies after the first transfer of ownership by the artist when:

  • The work of art is sold on the secondary market and the artist is of UK, EEA or other qualifying nationality as listed here.
  • The sale price is the sterling equivalent of €1,000 or more.
  • An AMP is involved at some stage of sale.

Non-eligible sales

Sales which are not eligible for ARR include:

  • Primary sales
  • Private sales
  • Sales of works of art by artists of non-qualifying nationalities eg. American artists
  • Sales which qualify for the ‘bought as stock’ exception.

How to report eligible sales

Every quarter ACS sends all of the AMPs on our database a complete list of ACS member artists and a form for you to report any eligible sales. Please consult this list to see if you have made any eligible sales by any of our member artists. You can report eligible sales using the following methods:

  • Online reporting. Click here to register and create an account where you can submit all eligible sales information, view any invoices, and check the status of these payments.
  • Download a reporting form here and email, post or fax this form to ACS.
  • Complete the form issued in our quarterly mailout and email, post or fax it back to ACS.
  • Email or telephone us on  0845 1122400 with the relevant information.
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