Industry committee  This is just it. Unfortunately, in the art business, we're selling a fantasy, much like the case with lottery tickets. When the Ontario lottery advertises that Mr. and Mrs. Smith of Leamington, Ontario won the 6/49, they don't say, “and, by the way, there were 20 million other ti

Industry committee  It's really hard to say. In the United States, California enacted an ARR in the 1970s, which was just overturned by the courts. It all came about after an auction where a Robert Rauschenberg painting that was originally sold for something like $50,000, let's say, was sold for $

Industry committee  If there were some sort of flow-through, so that it was understood that there are certain steps required to bring things to market that would somehow not involve an ARR, then it wouldn't raise the price incrementally. In other words, if someone has to pay to ship a piece from C

Industry committee  It doesn't necessarily lower the demand. The demand is low enough. You're raising the retail price, which makes it less competitive in the marketplace. In other words, if it's hard enough to sell at $5,000, it's going to be that much harder to sell at $6,000.

Industry committee  Indeed. That's our big concern.

Industry committee  It's way outside of my....

Industry committee  In the traditional gallery-auction house model, we're the intermediaries between the consumer and either the producer or the seller, in the case of resale. In other words, a gallery has an exhibition of an artist's work and people come in and buy it. If people are going to try to

Industry committee  Put it this way. Collectors aren't thrilled about paying 15% HST in the Maritimes or 13% in Ontario. If there is a way for them to avoid it and the seller is automatically in a position whereby he or she can save 5%, they will find a way.

Industry committee  Can I just say one thing?

Industry committee  I just thought of something. Everyone talked about estates. Unfortunately, most Inuit artists die intestate, so who are the legitimate heirs between adopted children, biological children, etc.? No one has given us information as to who gets what. Again, so many of the early pie

Industry committee  I know, but I'm saying that auction houses often forget the words “attributed to” because they want it to sound as if it is definitely by.... All of a sudden, we could have a situation where the next-door neighbour says, “No, I made that.” Again, the question of who gets what is

Industry committee  In another life, we used to deal in contemporary art from southern artists. Every time we made a sale, along with the cheque we said, “We sold this painting to Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” We said exactly whom we sold it to. But I would think there are probably also some very serious pri