Legal Cases

“No reputable dealer wants to see elephants dead” was among the opening remarks by the QC acting for a group of dealers and collectors challenging the Ivory Act 2018, at the High Court today.

The Court of Appeals in London has upheld a decision that said advisor Simon de Pury was entitled to a $10m fee on the strength of a handshake agreement.

A prolific pensioner art thief has been sentenced to two years in jail. Police are now calling for help to locate a painting that he stole from a private members’ club in London.

Old Master picture dealer Mark Weiss has agreed an out-of-court settlement with Sotheby’s in the case of a $10m painting the auction house believed to be a forgery.

New joiners in the world of art and antiques this week.

London gallery Richard Green has said it will defend a claim made in the High Court by a client who purchased two Old Masters for €5m at TEFAF Maastricht last year.

A legal claim lodged against Christie’s in New York has highlighted some of the practices relating to private sales that top-end auctioneers make behind closed doors.

Supreme Court in Paris rules that auction house can now charge buyers rather than sellers for artist levy.

Tapestry and textiles specialist Franses won a landmark Supreme Court case against its landlord the Cavendish Hotel, allowing it to continue to operate from the London gallery that has been its home for more than 25 years.

Sotheby’s has described a claim filed in New York that it conspired to defraud the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev as “entirely without merit”.

The owner of a rediscovered early Renaissance painting has been blocked from taking the work to Switzerland after a High Court judge rejected her claim over the granting of an export licence.

A US book dealer has resigned from The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) following charges being made against him in connection with the theft of $8m of books from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

A Persian limestone relief sculpture is to be returned to Iran, a New York court has ruled.

A Washington DC appeals court has upheld a decision to allow a ‘Nazi forced sale’ claim against a spectacular collection of medieval devotional art to go to trial in the US.