For years, a battle has been waged between two organizations, one French and the other Spanish, over the droit de suite — payments received by artists or their heirs when their work is resold in Europe — from sales of Salvador Dalí's artworks. Now, following decisions by the European Court of Justice and a Parisian district court, Spain has prevailed, meaning that instead of these payments going to the flamboyant artist's surviving relatives, they will be paid to the Spanish state as stipulated in his will.

The origins of the legal saga go back to 1989, when Dalí died at age 84 while listening to his favorite record, Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde." By that time, his prodigious artistic output totaled 15,000 works, from his famed early paintings to his less acclaimed late portraits. In his will, Dalí designated the Spanish state as the only heir of his intellectual property rights, stipulating that the revenue should be divided between the national government and the Catalonian town of Figueres, his hometown and the place of his death.

The hitch, however, was that while Dalí's will was in accordance with Spanish law, French law gives priority to an artist's living heirs and makes droit de suite independent of an artist's last will and testament. When works by Dalí were sold in France by the Fundacío Gala-Salvador Dalí, which manages his estate, the French copyright organization ADAGP kept the applicable droit de suite percentages and paid these to Dalí's five surviving family members. The foundation sought for years to recover this revenue for Spain.

According to European law, resale royalties are graduated according to the sales price: four percent of the first €50,000 ($69,900) of the hammer price; three percent of the portion between €50,000 and €200,000 ($279,550); one percent of the portion between €200,000 and €350,000 ($489,200); one-half of a percent of the portion between €350,000 and €500,000 ($698,900); and one-quarter of a percent of the portion exceeding €500,000. Royalties are capped at €12,500 ($17,475).

In a preliminary decision affecting the case, the European Court of Justice ruled that each member country is free to limit the number and the characteristics of persons who can benefit from droit de suite after an artist's death — meaning that Spain was within its rights to exclude Dalí's descendants in accordance with his will. Subsequently, the matter came before a Parisian district court, which decided on July 8 that the law of the country of each artist's origin or nationality should apply, as determined upon the legal establishment of the estate after death. Therefore, Spanish law governs Dalí's estate, and the court ordered ADAGP to reimburse the foundation for Dalí's droit de suite payments in France since 1997 (the year when the foundation was legally established as the copyright holder).

The Fundacío Gala-Salvador Dalí celebrated the decision, writing in a statement that the result "is not just a step forward for the defense and protection of Salvador Dalí's rights, but also establishes a legal precedent." According to the foundation, Dalí's five surviving relatives, who may be required to return the revenue they have received from ADAGP over the years, did not appear at the trial but do have the right to appeal the decision.

Only minor works by Dalí have sold at auction in France in recent years. His artist record was established last February at Sotheby's London, when his "Portrait of Paul Eluard" from 1929 sold for £13.5 million ($21.7 million), also setting a world auction record for a Surrealist work of art.