Lost Artist, Found Royalties

The Wall Street Journal has a cute story about the repercussions of the state’s law requiring artists to receive a portion of work’s sale value. In the accompanying list, artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Michael de Suvero are listed. Ooops.

When a work of art is resold in the state, or by a California resident, the seller must set aside 5% of the gross selling price to pay the artist. The law applies to any resale of $1,000 or more within 20 years of an artist’s death, so long as the sale isn’t between dealers.

In theory, the law is a boon for artists. In practice, it means Ms. Milich sometimes must spend months trying to deliver paltry sums to people who have faded into obscurity, moved abroad or simply don’t want to be bothered. [ . . . ]

Some to whom she has funneled royalty payments include big names like conceptual artist John Baldessari. Others, including the estate of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, are due cash but haven’t responded.

The payments can run into the tens of thousands of dollars but usually are more modest, about $300 to $400, Ms. Milich says. Galleries and dealers who can’t find the artists are supposed to send the cash to the Arts Council, which holds it in escrow while it tries to locate them. About $250,000 has come to the state agency to pass on to artists.

Millions more due artists may have leaked out of the system. Many buyers and sellers don’t know about the law; others simply ignore it. Some sellers deliberately pick locations outside California to sell their works in order to avoid paying the royalty, arts lawyers say.

Many artists whose names Ms. Milich receives are tracked down after a quick database search. About one-third of the cases require work that can go on for months.

The list  of artists California is “looking for” is below:

David Aronson Darrel Austin Jonathan Barbieri Jean-Michel Basquiat Henrietta Berk William Brice Joan Brown David Budd Robert de Niro, Sr. Mark di Suvero William Ballantine Dorsey Eyvind Earle Leonard Edmondson Jerry Garcia Andre Gisson

Shirl Goedike David Hammons David Hare Steven Heino Barkley Hendricks John Raymond Henry Wade Hoefer Douglas Huebler Wolf Kahn Matsumi (Mike) Kanemitsu Robert Craig Kauffman Gyorgy Kepes Alex Kosta Erle Loran Sally Michel Avery

James Mitchell Ryuta Nakajima John Nieto George Rickey Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer Judith Rothschild Kenny Scharf Fritz William Scholder Nelson Valentine Stephan von Huene James Weeks Donald Roller Wilson Dick Wray Noriko Yamamoto Peter Zecher

The Case of the $80 Royalty Check: A Mystery for Patty Millich, Art Sleuth (Wall Street Journal)

Attention: Looking for Artists (California Arts Council)