Your Artwork Crossed a Border. Did Your Rights?
Priya N. Chen on 10th Nov 2026
Your Artwork Crossed a Border. Did Your Rights?
I sold the painting, but I never signed away the right to reproduce it. That is the distinction I want every artist to make before a work travels. The buyer may own the canvas. Copyright concerns the image on it. A gallery, publisher, or buyer who wants to print that image needs to know who can grant a license. A sale and a license are different transactions. Put the license in writing. Say which uses it covers, in which countries, and for how long.
The Berne Convention gives an artist a starting point when protection is needed abroad. Its rule of national treatment means a member country generally gives an eligible foreign work the protection it gives its own works. Berne also sets minimum standards. Protection under the Convention does not depend on completing a formality. These are treaty principles, not a single worldwide copyright. Berne does not issue one registration that works everywhere. Nor does it make the law of the artist’s home country govern every use abroad.
The border matters when the image is used. If protection is sought in the United Kingdom, start with UK law. Section 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 says copyright is a property right that subsists, subject to the Act, in original artistic works. If protection is sought in the United States, start with US copyright law. Its Copyright Act defines the Berne Convention, but the treaty’s promise is not a substitute for checking US rules on ownership, registration, and remedies. A right can cross a border without every procedure crossing with it.
This is why the clause on a gallery invoice matters. “Worldwide use” is not a small courtesy if the gallery plans to reproduce the work in a catalogue or license its image elsewhere. Name the permitted use. Name the territory. Keep the sale of the object separate from permission to copy the image. Before you sign, write down who owns the copyright, who may license it, and each country where the image will be used. Then check that country’s law before relying on Berne as though it were a local filing rule.
This column teaches the law. It is not legal advice for your dispute. A lawyer admitted where you live, or where the work is used, is who files, registers, and argues.
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