Law, crime and regulation

A leading art market lawyer is among more than 300 US business chiefs, legal experts and trade bodies attending hearings in Washington, DC this week to argue against the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs on Chinese imports into the US.

A BBC Panorama investigation, due to broadcast tonight, details how legal antique guns can be used by criminals who illegally obtain ammunition to commit crime.

Award-winning designer and silversmith Wayne V Meeten is appealing to the trade to help him find his stolen silver truffle box.

A 12th-century Chola bronze, stolen from a museum in India nearly 60 years ago, has been returned to the country after it was discovered at a London antiques fair earlier this year.

Dealers Alastair Gibson and Laura Bordignon have taken an advertisement in this week’s Antiques Trade Gazette calling on the trade to petition the government to widen the ‘de minimus’ exemption for antique ivory objects in a forthcoming law that will restrict their trade.

The hearing in the case of two men accused of a massive US library theft has been postponed until October 12.

Eight Sumerian antiquities seized by the Metropolitan Police from a London dealer in 2003 are to be returned to Iraq after identification by the British Museum.

A rare Islamic manuscript consigned to a Bonhams auction in London has been returned to Egypt in the latest example of Egyptian authorities succeeding in retrieving artefacts from abroad.

The European Union’s plan to introduce new laws on the import of cultural goods, due to be voted on this summer, has been delayed until September.

British biotech entrepreneur Sir Christopher Evans has offered a “substantial reward” to help recover £1m worth of antiques, jewellery and silver stolen in a raid on his home in Gloucestershire.

High-profile London book dealers Peter Harrington and Maggs Bros have been left out of pocket after an alleged $8m rare books theft from Carnegie Library in the US.