New German Law

cacheman

I just finished having a conversation with Karl Stephens out of California and he told me there is a new law in Germany that may have an affect on us medal collectors in one way or the other. Evidently, Germany just passed a law where families of the artists who created medals will receive a 5% surcharge charged on any medal sold because it has been determined that medals are "intellectual property" of the original artist and his/her heirs. Anyway, Karl thinks auction houses could just stop handling medals all together so as not to deal with the hassle (best case as this may lower prices out of Germany). Worst case is that they add this charge to the 15% juice already incurred and the buyer eats the charge. I'll have to check out the situation on this when I'm over there in April. This would only affect the auction houses since their sales are public but could be done under the counter with private sellers and dealers since there doesn't need to be a "paper trail".

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

JohnZ

Very interesting. An analogous situation occurs in the field of classical music. In several European countries, music written by a composer is considered to be the intellectual property of his estate for 50 years after his death. One example is Claude Debussy. The publishers of his music, Durand et Cie., had to pay royalties to his estate for 50 years, which made their editions prohibitively expensive. After the 50-year period, his music became public domain, and was then legally printed by companies like Dover Books, at a fraction of the cost.

I'm personally not opposed to this idea as long as there is a reasonable amount of time set as a limit. After all, are we supposed to look up Benjamin Franklin's relatives to pay them a royalty on owning a chain cent? Which also brings up the question that if medal designs can be considered intellectual property, why not designs on circulating coins and commems as well?

Actually, now that I think about it, I don't like this idea at all.

cacheman

I may be wrong but I believe Karl said that there was no time limit imposed which means ancestors of Pisanello may be getting a late wind-fall from the 15th Century.

I will pick the brains of several German dealers to get their take on it and report back. S

JohnZ

In that case, I'm sure I can trace my ancestry back to Copernicus.

I think NASA owes me a check!

CIVITAS

That's absurd. The artist made his money on his "intellectual property" from his original sale of the medal. He doesn't relinquish copyright to the design, but any claim to proceeds from future sale of that actual medal should be null and void.

John, I don't know about other nations, but in the U.S., circulating coin designs are public domain which is why dealers can use them as logos and such without paying royalties.

cacheman

I'm pretty sure my ancestors in Germany did at least one thing "intelligent" in past history that can have a surcharge....where's dah money Mack!!

Lloyd

Cache
Now you're dealing with "Europeans" (and I don't mean inhabitants of Europe!!) ... They love this type of thing.

Lloyd
(Pure British and UN-European)

Askari

I hadn't heard that it was passed, but I know it's been under discussion for several years -- and, yes, all of these objections were raised, but that makes little difference to the Eurocrats. I'm willing to bet that creating this "new" income is envisioned as providing more tax revenue ... rather than suppressing the market to the degree that it actually nets negative revenue (just like the luxury boat taxes in New England devastated their economies some years back). I feel sure the auction houses will continue to pass along all costs. The only question is whether it is tacked on at the end or in the base bid (and upon which their "juice" is derived); wanna bet it'll be the latter?

1jester

I don't know about this law, but wait until they start adding 25% VAT onto medals and coins!!! Hopefully, this won't happen.

cosmicdebris

Medals only? What about patterns? As for Karl Stephens when is he going to put out a more recent price list? His last if from October.

BigAlan

Germany just passed a law where families of the artists who created medals will receive a 5% surcharge charged on any medal sold because it has been determined that medals are "intellectual property" of the original artist and his/her heirs.

Would this apply only to the first or primary sale?

cacheman

I would think it is going to be charged with every sale and resale of the medal if it is a public sale.