Korea's first Art Promotion Act to take effect, ensuring fair contracts and warranties

Korea's first Art Promotion Act will go into effect starting Friday, enabling artists to work under fair contracts and art buyers to receive a warranty for their purchases.

Visitors looking at artwork at the Korea International Art Fair (KIAF) on Sept. 7 at Coex, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

Korea's first Art Promotion Act will go into effect starting Friday, enabling artists to work under fair contracts and art buyers to receive a warranty for their purchases.

The new act, established on July 25, 2023, is Korea's first law exclusively regulating the arts market. A Museum and Art Gallery Promotion Act was established in 1991, but it only outlined how museums and galleries should be managed. The Culture and Arts Promotion Act is mainly focused on supporting the art market, rather than laying out specific rules for all parties involved.

The Art Promotion Act and the Enforcement Decree of the Art Promotion Act will fill much of the legal gap in the art industry that had been governed by conventional practices, such as contracts between artists and commissioners or the warranties provided to buyers by galleries or auctions.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will conduct a market analysis annually to provide statistics on the local market. Existing research had mainly focused on art fairs, galleries or auctions because other art-related services such as consultations, valuation and rental did not have specific business codes. The government will be mandated to establish a promotion strategy for the arts market every five years, based on the findings of the annual study.

Visitors looking at artwork at the Korea International Art Fair (KIAF) on Sept. 7 at Coex, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

Artists will also be able to demand a portion of the profit made during the resale of their works by other parties. Previously, artists could only get paid from the initial sales and were not given a share of auction or gallery sales. The artist's right to demand a share cannot be transferred to another party and will be effective for 30 years after their death, in which case their surviving family or legal representative can exercise the right.

The new art business reporting system will begin in 2026, and the resale compensation policy will start in 2027.

The Culture Ministry will also revamp the government-owned "Art Bank" facility and establish a larger-scale Public Art Bank that oversees all artworks owned by state-owned museums or regional governments to tighten its management of state-owned artworks.

"The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will use the Art Promotion Act in our endeavors to nurture and promote the arts ecosystem in general," the Culture Ministry said in a press release.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]