Artist contracts with a gallery
A gallery sees your work, there is a coffee, and a month later six paintings hang in the space. On paper there is an email with a date and the word exclusive.
Most of the time that goes fine. Until it does not, and it turns out nobody wrote down how long the arrangement ran, who was allowed to give a discount, or what happens to unsold work.
This page is written from your side of the table, under Dutch law.
What belongs in a gallery contract
Seven points decide whether a gallery arrangement holds: which works it covers, for how long, in what territory, what share of the proceeds is yours, within how many days you are paid, who insures, and how you get out.
There is a lever artists rarely use. In February 2023 the Mondriaan Fund and the Dutch Gallery Association launched the Gallery Fair Practice Code, and since 1 July 2023 it is compulsory for galleries taking part in the KunstKoop scheme or applying to the Art Fair Internationaal scheme. The code requires among other things that the relationship is recorded in writing, that your share of the sale price is paid within sixty days, and that unsold work comes back within a month if you ask for it.
So ask whether the gallery has signed the code. If it has, those points are not a favour but a commitment the gallery has already made.
Who owns an artwork held on consignment
On consignment, ownership stays with you. The gallery holds the work for you and may sell it on the agreed terms. That sounds safe, and it is, as long as you can prove which works are yours.
That is where the problem sits. If there is an attachment or an insolvency, a bailiff or trustee will start from the assumption that the stock in the gallery belongs to the gallery. Without paperwork you stand in line with the other creditors while being the owner.
So arrange three things. A written consignment agreement. A list per work, with title, year, size and value. And a receipt for every work the gallery takes in. Go through that list together once a year.
More about the same arrangement from the gallery’s side →
Exclusivity, commission and notice period in a gallery contract
Exclusivity is the term most disputes grow out of, because it rarely says how far it reaches. Does it cover all your work or only new work? Worldwide or within a territory? And if you sell from your own studio to someone you have known for years, is commission due on that?
On the commission itself there is no norm. What decides the amount are the subclauses: is it calculated on the price including or excluding VAT, before or after discount, may the gallery give discounts on its own and up to what level, and who bears the cost of transport, framing and fair participation. Two contracts with the same percentage can end up ten thousand euros apart.
At the end, three questions matter. What notice period applies. When do you get your work back, and in what condition. And is anything still payable if the gallery sells shortly after termination to a collector it introduced itself.
When Dutch copyright contract law applies to a gallery agreement
Chapter Ia of the Dutch Copyright Act, the copyright contract law, applies to agreements whose main purpose is granting exploitation rights in the author’s copyright. A consignment that is only about selling physical works falls outside it in principle: you transfer no rights, you leave a canvas in someone’s care.
That changes as soon as the gallery gets more than the work. A catalogue, prints, an image bank, merchandise or a licence to a third party: that is exploitation of your copyright, and the whole chapter comes into view.
What it gives you is substantial. You are entitled to fair remuneration (article 25c). The other party has to inform you at least once a year about the exploitation, the income and the remuneration; that transparency obligation has applied since June 2022 (article 25ca). If the work does far better than anyone assumed, you can claim additional remuneration (article 25d, the bestseller provision). If nothing happens at all, you can terminate the agreement after giving a reasonable period in writing (article 25e). And a term that is unreasonably onerous for you can be annulled (article 25f).
None of this can be waived, however the contract is worded (article 25h). If it deadlocks, the Disputes Committee for Copyright Contract Law has existed since 2016, housed at De Geschillencommissie in The Hague. It mediates first, free of charge.
What has to be in writing since 2026 on assignment and exclusive licence
Assign copyright or grant an exclusive licence and it has to be in writing. For an assignment a deed is needed as well. Since 1 January 2026 that deed requirement no longer applies to an exclusive licence; writing is enough there. Much of the guidance floating around online predates that change.
More important for you is the second rule in article 2 of the Copyright Act: on an assignment or exclusive licence by the author, only those rights pass that are expressly stated in the agreement or that necessarily follow from its nature and purpose.
That is a safety net, not a free pass. “The gallery may use the work for promotional purposes” is too broad to be comfortable. Name the channels, the purpose and the duration, and you know where you stand.
What a gallery contract cannot take from you: the resale right and moral rights
Two rights stay with you whatever the contract says.
The resale right cannot be transferred, other than by bequest, and it cannot be waived. That is article 43a of the Copyright Act. A gallery that has you sign it away will not hold that term.
Your moral rights under article 25 are more nuanced. You can waive the right to be named, and partly the right to object to alterations. But you cannot waive the right to act against distortion, mutilation or other impairment of your work that harms your honour or reputation. That is the floor beneath the floor.
More about the moral rights of the artist →
Exhibiting without sales: the artist’s fee
Show work in a museum, kunsthal or presentation institution that sells nothing, and there is no commission and so no income. For that the Guideline for Artists’ Fees has existed since 1 January 2017, an initiative of Beeldende Kunst Nederland, with a calculator at kunstenaarshonorarium.nl that works out a minimum fee based on duration, number of participants and whether the work is new.
The guideline is not compulsory. Institutions may depart from it provided they explain why. The Mondriaan Fund also runs a scheme that partly compensates institutions applying the guideline.
So raise it in the first email about an exhibition, not when the works are going up. It is not a favour you are asking.
If the work goes to a museum, a loan agreement comes with it, covering insurance, transport and climate.
Get in touch with Jaap Versteeg
Is there a gallery contract on the table you do not quite trust? Or do you want out of an arrangement that pinches? Get in touch with Jaap Versteeg. Call 020 675 88 21 or email him for an initial consultation.
