Law, crime and regulation

COMMENT: More than 60,000 visitors on a summer Saturday, one of the most popular tourist spots in the UK, a name so recognised internationally that the local council wants to brand a Crossrail station after it... there are plenty of reasons to protect Portobello‘s antiques trade.

Close to 800 postcards in the Artist’s Resale Right campaign have already arrived at the Department of Culture, with more on the way.

An alarming rise in violent robberies on antiques dealers in Portobello Road has spurred them into action to call for better police cover, CCTV cameras and even private security guards.

A federal judge has declared the 1977 California Resale Royalty Act unconstitutional.

Two more churches have been hit by thieves in the latest of a series of break-ins targeting medieval monuments and carvings.

The English Supreme Court has ruled that expert witnesses will no longer enjoy immunity from civil lawsuits when giving evidence in either civil or criminal legal proceedings.

Comment: Nicholas Somers, FNAVA. FRSA.

Ramraiders have stolen more than 50 silver and jewellery items worth up to £20,000 from an auction house in Worcestershire.

A very rare medieval jug, originally sold at Sotheby’s but then put on display by a Luton museum after a successful appeal to keep it in the UK, has been stolen.

Glasgow auction house McTear’s have scrapped payments over the phone in a bid to tackle credit card fraud. They now use an online system, which they say customers prefer and is safer all round.

This week’s printed copy of ATG contains a postcard addressed to the Culture Secretary carrying the following message: “I oppose the extension of Artist’s Resale Right to works by deceased artists and request that the threshold which triggers it be raised from €1000 to €3000.”

Beset by allegations of non-payment and credit card irregularities, Berkshire saleroom Cameo Fine Art Auctioneers have suspended trading.

An international award scheme set up two years ago has honoured Cranfield University’s programme of research into art market fakes and forgeries.

One of the UK’s most prolific and accomplished art fraudsters has been jailed for two years after admitting he created up to 1000 forgeries.

Two suspects have been charged in connection with the theft of 18 Chinese hardstone carvings worth millions of pounds from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge on April 13.

THE State of California has recently begun to strictly enforce a law banning the sale of ivory regardless of age. Dealers and auctioneers offering antiques made from ivory or including ivory among their constituent parts have had merchandise seized.

IT wasn’t a phone bid which caught out Joe Smith of J.S. Auctions when it came to credit card crime – this time the fraudsters left a commission bid.

WHILE auction houses are becoming more aware of the threat from credit card fraud, dealers should also take care over payments, a victim from Crawley, West Sussex has warned.

CREDIT card fraud affecting auction houses and dealers is on the increase all over the country, say the police.

CHINESE hardstone carvings worth millions have been stolen from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.