Artprice and ADAGP sign an agreement strengthening the digital economy and copyright

Artprice, the world leader in art market information, and ADAGP, the rights management society with the widest representation in the field of the visual arts, have reached a very special agreement.
ADAGP specialises in royalty and rights management. It was created in 1953 and represents 48,000 visual artists. Working through its network of sister societies, it collects and distributes its members’ royalties in more than 43 countries.

Artprice is the world leader in art market information and has covered 2,900 auction houses since 1997. Its archives contain 290,000 illustrated auction catalogues spanning the whole 1700-2007 period, which enable Artprice clients to access 25 million sale prices and indices. However, the lack of images of works has until now been a major gap in its offering.

Following the signing of this unique agreement, Artprice will be able to permit its clients to view millions of images of works by the 370,000 artists included in its database. Artprice will therefore be able, perfectly legally, to enhance its turnover by satisfying the demand for images from 45 million art lovers and art professionals worldwide that it was previously unable to meet. In return, Artprice will be able to remunerate the artists and rights-holders represented by ADAGP in respect of the works reproduced on Artprice.com, from the turnover generated by subscriptions to Artprice Images®. This coming together of the world’s foremost provider of art market information and the largest rights management society representing visual artists illustrates that the upholding of copyright is in no way inconsistent with the advance of the digital economy, thanks in particular to the collective management of rights by specialist societies. This legal step underlines Artprice’s commitment to strictly observing the rights of representation and reproduction (afforded by Articles L122-2 and L122-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code, CPI), which are regularly breached on the internet, to the artists’ cost.

From 1 September 2007, two revolutionary new services will be available to Artprice clients via Artprice Images®:
The first is the possibility of viewing not just the description of a work, but also its reproduction from the page of the catalogue in question, in Artprice’s standardised presentation. Unlimited access to the high-quality images can be obtained by means of an annual subscription to Artprice Images®, for an initial price of less than EUR 99.
Artprice will also make it possible to search its huge archive directly. In addition to works still covered by copyright, the entire Artprice archive, consisting of hundreds of thousands of auction catalogues dating from 1700 to the present day, will gradually be put online. These resources, which will be digitised according to Artprice’s proprietary standards, represent the world’s largest source of information on the art market, as well as decorative art, design and antiquities. It will be possible to access 32.4 million catalogue pages directly online using advanced search criteria defined during Artprice’s process of standardisation over the last ten years.

In addition to the descriptive information of the works, prices are also affected by the context. According to the econometrics department at Artprice, the price of a work may – all things being equal – vary by 30% as a consequence of external factors (media coverage of the sale, the auctioneer and location, provenance, number of lots, the presence of masterpieces, the quality of those in attendance, etc.). By accessing the entire auction catalogue content, Artprice clients can gain an insight into the overall context in which the works were sold. From now on, all information that is key to interpreting prices will be available on Artprice.

By extending its standardised database to include catalogues from sales of design, antiquities and decorative arts and adding images and full catalogue information, Artprice is becoming the world’s leading source of information on auctions, whatever the field.

Source: (c) www.artprice.com 1987-2007, Thierry Ehrmann