When Kerry James Marshall saw his painting Past Times (1997) sell for $21 million at Sotheby’s in 2018, a record for a living African American artist, he did not receive a single cent of that amount. Seven years later, that episode has become the starting point for an initiative that aims to change the rules of the game on resale rights for artists in the United States: the new program launched by Bonhams together with Kasseem Dean, known as Swizz Beatz, and Alicia Keys.
Key points
- Bonhams is launching “The Deans’ Choice” in the US, created with Kasseem Dean and Alicia Keys, to ensure that living artists receive a share of secondary market sales.
- The program starts in November with the auction house’s 20th and 21st century art sales.
- The minimum royalty is 1% of the hammer price or $500, and Bonhams doubles the amount by matching the same percentage on the buyer’s premium.
- The United States lags behind about 80 countries, including the entire European Union, that legally recognize resale royalties.
- The Artists Rights Society calls the initiative an important but limited step, because it remains voluntary.
Bonhams and iconic artists launch the “The Deans’ Choice” program
The Marshall case deeply affected the two collectors and musicians. “We thought that being part of such a milestone would also be an advantage for the artist who created the work,” Dean and Keys wrote to ARTnews. “But that wasn’t the case.” From that episode came the desire to build a mechanism that would allow living artists to benefit financially from sales after the first change of hands.
The Kerry James Marshall case and the birth of the idea
It took seven years before the Deans found in Bonhams a partner willing to concretely build this system. “They were excited to collaborate with us on a groundbreaking idea,” they said. “For them as a company, it was an important decision.” The result is “The Deans’ Choice with Bonhams,” which debuts in November during the London house’s American 20th and 21st century art auctions.
How the royalty model works and who can participate
The mechanism, which Bonhams calls an “elective sale royalty,” allows sellers to voluntarily allocate a percentage of the proceeds to the artist who created the work, while the auction house doubles the amount by drawing on the buyer’s premium. To take part, artists must register through the dedicated page on the Bonhams website.
CEO Seth Johnson explained that “there should be a mechanism by which an artist can share in the fruits of their work during their lifetime,” highlighting the cross-departmental work within the company, particularly the legal department led by general counsel Patricia Pernes.
Minimum royalty and matching mechanism
The minimum threshold is set at 1% of the hammer price per lot or $500, whichever is higher. Bonhams then matches the percentage chosen by the consignor, calculating it on the buyer’s premium: if a seller sets a 7% royalty on the hammer price, the auction house pays an additional 7% calculated on the premium.
A concrete example is the painting Ribbon of Thought (2020) by Jadé Fadojutimi, sold last May by Bonhams for $220,000, or $279,900 including fees. If the seller had chosen a 5% royalty, the artist would have received $11,000 from the consignor and another $2,995 from Bonhams thanks to the matching mechanism.
The US legal gap on resale royalties
The United States remains one of the few major art markets where artists do not receive residual payments on resales of their works. This is a substantial difference compared to about 80 countries, including all the nations of the European Union, where resale royalties are already provided for by law thanks to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which guarantees these rights for the artist’s lifetime plus 70 years after death. In the EU, royalties are tiered: 4% up to €50,000, 3% between €50,000.01 and €200,000, and so on, with a maximum cap of €12,500.
The state of the ART Act
The US Congress has repeatedly tried to fill this gap with the American Royalties Too Act, updated in 2025 as H.R.4017 by New York representative Jerrold Nadler, which provides for a 5% royalty (capped at $50,000) on secondary market sales over $5,000. The law, however, has not yet been approved, leaving the Bonhams program as one of the few concrete tools currently available to American artists.
Industry reception and future prospects
Theodore Feder, founder and president of the Artists Rights Society, which represents over 200,000 visual artists worldwide, has called Bonhams’ initiative “a fundamental first step” toward a resale royalty system for artists. However, he specified in a statement to ARTnews that the proposal “only goes halfway toward solving the situation in the United States,” because the royalty applies only with the seller’s consent and remains limited to the artist’s lifetime.
Artist Allison Zuckerman, a longtime supporter of resale agreements, also described it as a “revolutionary” initiative that “begins to establish an important norm,” recognizing the lasting bond between artists and the works that continue to circulate on the market after their creation. The Deans compared the situation to that of music: “When we write a song, we receive royalties for that song. They last a lifetime, and they are something we can leave to our children as an inheritance.” Both Bonhams and the Deans hope that the model will be adopted by other auction houses, turning an exception into a practice shared across the sector.
FAQ
What is Bonhams’ “The Deans’ Choice” program?
It is an initiative that allows sellers in Bonhams’ American auctions to allocate a percentage of secondary market sale proceeds to living artists, with the auction house matching that percentage by drawing on the buyer’s premium.
How can artists participate in this royalty program?
Artists must register through a dedicated page on the Bonhams website to be eligible for the royalties provided by the program.
How does the royalty percentage work in the program?
Sellers choose a royalty percentage, with a minimum of 1% or $500; Bonhams matches that percentage by calculating it on the buyer’s premium, effectively doubling the amount allocated to the artist.
Why is this initiative significant for the US art market?
American artists have historically not received resale royalties, unlike in many other countries; this program offers a voluntary mechanism that addresses this gap while dedicated legislation remains stalled in Congress.
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