Law, crime and regulation

Police investigating a robbery at Montpellier Antiques in Harrogate on the morning of Monday, March 16, have arrested and charged a 24-year-old man from Manchester.

Two of the three people sentenced for their role in the Cameo auction house fraud have lodged appeals against their convictions.

Eleven men charged with conspiracy to steal as part of a national investigation into high-value thefts at an auction house and museums have pleaded not guilty at Birmingham Crown Court.

A picture stolen from a Hertfordshire house three years ago and recently recovered sold at an Essex auction last week for £80,000.

More information has emerged about the colourful recent history of the £5m Wolsey Angels.

Law change could cost millions and expose them to criminal charge risk as expired design rights come back into force and upgrade

The owner of leading south Florida auction house Elite Decorative Arts has pleaded guilty to wildlife trafficking and agreed to a fine of $1.5m.

The buyer of £25.5m worth of artworks left on a train in Italy faces a legal claim from the heir of the man from whom they were stolen in 1970.

The tribunal that will decide if British showground fairs must charge 20% VAT on pitch rentals will go ahead on February 10-12.

ArtClaim, a new database launched in London this week to track lost, disputed and stolen cultural objects, promises new ways of identifying and recording interests attached to works of art.

A High Court judge has dismissed a claim made against Sotheby’s surrounding the sale of a disputed version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’.

Strict rules governing the integrity of early English coinage could lead to the newly uncovered Aylesbury Hoard revising our perspective of the Anglo-Saxon period.

The bosses of a Berkshire auction house who defrauded customers of up to £250,000 have been found guilty of nine out of 11 charges.

Police are investigating a theft that occurred at Christie’s King Street premises at the end of last year.

The burden of proof in CITES court cases should now switch from the defence to the prosecution, says a lawyer who has just won an important victory on the matter.

Lawyer ANDREW BANKS reviews three recent CITES cases and considers what we might learn from them...

Guidance issued this month by the authorities charged with implementing New York’s latest ivory laws has offered a few crumbs of comfort to art dealers and owners of antique ivory works of art.

The Kunstmuseum Bern’s announcement that it would accept the Gurlitt bequest (aside from any Nazi-looted art) has been followed by a pledge by Germany’s culture minister to return the disputed Matisse and other works to the families of their original owners.

A Portobello Road dealer, charged with the sale of an ivory carving police believed had contravened CITES rules, has won her case after a judge said it was up to the Crown to prove its age.

Thirteen men have been charged with conspiracy to steal as part of a national investigation into high-value thefts from an East Sussex saleroom and museums across the country.