Peculiarities of Legal Regulation of Fine Art Prints

The print market has been rapidly growing and setting price records. Art prints form a separate and independent segment of art market. Prints are produced in multiples where each peace forms an original work of art, making them highly collectible and simultaneously highly attractive for unscrupulous traders. From the legal point of view art prints is a threshold sphere which stands on the border of copyright law and consumer protection law. Neither of these fields of law provide full coverage and satisfactory regulation of fine art multiples in Europe. Increasing amount of unfair commercial practices of art dealers has formed a basis for such deep research and analysis of current legislative situation in the sphere of fine art prints. The author shows that there exists the need for more precise regulation in Europe and as a logical consequence the Draft Directive is proposed. The analysis should be helpful for art market practitioners, as well as especially useful to collectors, occasional buyers, or anyone else who may be considering making luxurious and beneficial investment in fine art prints.