Do Museums own Rights to Classic Art Paintings?

Do museums own rights to classic art paintings? Tricky Question isn’t it? It is the most asked question and recent copyright issues that usually comes in every second artist mind or sometimes buyers mind and it is important to get the appropriate answer.

The general answer is no they don’t own the rights. It is important to understand that copyright is not standardized anywhere in the world.

Original and Copyright Art

Whenever someone purchases an artwork they usually purchases an artwork but not the copyright belongs to that artwork. The copyright belongs to the artist only until the three situations arises:

# The artist signed their copyright to the buyer himself.
# The copyright got expired.
# It was work for hire.

If any of the above circumstances exist then only one acquires the copyright, apart from this the buyer only purchase the artwork not the right to reproduce the artwork in any form. Same as in case of buying a book and own it, and enjoy it read it and get entertain but you don’t own the right to reproduce it.

Years of Copyright
Normally the painting belongs to the artist who created the artwork and retain the copyright always when they are selling the paintings until or unless they sell their copyright under a special agreement or giving away their copyright to someone else.

Do you know?

When we talk about the time span of copyright then it will vary according to the country. If we talk about Russia, Poland, South Africa & Japan artists the artwork will remain in copyright for 50 years after the artist dies.

In case of British, European and American artists all their artworks remain in copyright for 70 years after death and the rights will belong to the artist’s estate. After the 70 years has finished the intellectual property in the artist’s artworks will usually pass to the public domain. The beneficiaries of the estate artwork income are the surviving members of the family.

If we talk about some other countries like Spanish artists it will last more longer around 80 years after artist death. On the other hand if we work on French artists it is 120 years.

Here’s the kicker:
There are some rare cases in which artists themselves put their artwork in a will. They donate their artwork along with the copyright to some art museum or gallery. In some cases the artists left no will, in that exception the artwork is claimed by government and kept in state owned art gallery or museum. Problem arise in a case when artist left no will and his/her artworks are highly regarded.

Copyright clarified by Artists
Read How? It will be bit complicated why anyone can copy your art just because he/she purchased the original or an edition print. Some buyers can get the idea in their head that this is okay.

It's kind of flattering in a way because it means that they enjoy your piece so much that they want to share it. But it is not right ethically because that is money the artist could have made and it is illegal. Even if they don't sell the reproduce ones, just the reproduction itself is not okay.

What can artists do to make it more clearly to buyers? Nothing just simply add a copyright notice at the back of the painting showing © Year Name and include the information in your certificate of authenticity or sale. This will get them a complete information what to do or not to.

What’s the Bottom Line?

The bottom line is no one can copy your artwork without your permission in any form. After reading this article every buyer and artist both get a clear idea about the copyright of artwork. This will not a suspense anymore.

Have you ever faced such own copyright issue and how you dealt with it? Leave your answer in a comment section below.