Artist Robert Ballagh was awarded €5,000 damages by the High Court today in compensation for loss of royalties over the resale of his paintings.
Mr Ballagh had brought a legal challenge when the State did not bring in a law to deal with the resale rights of artists by the January 1st dealdine this year.
The artist claimed he was incurring financial losses as a result of the State's failure to implement an EU directive on the resale rights of artists, known as droit de suite.
The EU directive was implemented this month and the High Court yesterday awarded Mr Ballagh compensatory damages for the loss of royalties he incurred because of the five-and-a-half month delay in bringing in the law.
Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill said the delay could not be said to be one of a reprehensible or outrageous nature such as to attract exemplary or aggravated damages.
He ruled that only compensatory damages should be awarded in relation to the loss of rights on works of art by Mr Ballagh sold from January 1st, ,2006 to June 13th, 2006.
The judge said it would be reasonable to assume there may have been difficulties in tracking down these works and some may have escaped Mr Ballagh's notice.
Mr Ballagh, he added, is an artist of great repute and he awarded him "slightly over" the rights calculation to compensate for further loss in relation to works of art sold in that period and which may not have surfaced yet.
The judge also awarded Mr Ballagh the costs of the proceedings.