More resold “trash”
The Art Law Blog picked up on another story about resold “trash”. In this case, an artist has disposed of their work, and it was resold by another artist. Although the second artist isn’t claiming creative rights to the work, the question which remains is: does the second artist have the right to sell the work?
I’m going to say that this doesn’t have to do with copyright, per se, because there are no copies involved. this is more of an issue of the artist’s moral rights. It’s a situation similar to that of writers whose unfinished works are published after their death. The question then becomes: is it the creator or the public who determines the cultural value of an unfinished work?
The danger of allowing others to sell the unfinished work of the creator, without the creator’s permission, is that the work can easily become part of the creator’s perceived body of work, even though it was never intended to be such. Sketches, notes and maquettes are easily identifiable as pre-work…relics of the creative process, rather than the result of the creative process.
Tags: art, money, moral rights, value
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