Law, crime and regulation

BONHAMS withdrew 16 lots, with a combined top estimate in excess of £200,000, from last Wednesday’s Bond Street furniture sale after they had good reason to believe the consignor was connected with disgraced ex-BADA dealer John Hobbs.

PICTURED here is one of more than 100 polychrome Delft tiles, valued at hundreds of thousands of pounds, stolen from a leading collector in the Netherlands.

HAVING appeared to wash their hands of their obligation to undertake a study of the effect of the Artist’s Resale Right, the European Commission has finally agreed that they will look into the matter early in 2011.

THE Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have issued further important guidelines regarding the sale of antique rhinoceros horn.

THREE people have been arrested in Germany in connection with a multi-million pound art fraud involving a number of apparently major 20th century oils sold on the international market in recent years.

A NEW strict liability rule under the Bribery Act exposes companies to prosecution if they do not put necessary procedures in place to police those acting on their behalf.

A COLLECTION of 11 antique violin bows valued at £110,000 is now feared stolen after they were left on a train.

SHOWGROUND fair dealers are reminded to be vigilant after a visitor to the recent Newark fair had his pockets slashed.

THREE masked raiders who stole £30,000 of antiques from a Petworth gallery before leading police on a chase across the home counties, have been jailed.

THE fake Lowry at the centre of a £1m art fraud that landed Maurice “Lord Windsor” Taylor in jail is heading to auction to help pay his victims compensation. Once sold for £330,000, it is now valued at just £5,000-10,000.

THE Ashley-Russell case will be the focus of the next Fakes and Forgeries seminar at Goldsmiths' Hall in London on November 22.

THE government are to refuse nearly all future applications for the export of old rhinoceros horn sold in the UK.

THE Hotel Drouot, the communal auction facility used by most Paris auctioneers, faces an even bigger overhaul than expected after the French Justice Minister’s scathing report about its culture and working practices.

EXPERIMENTAL technology designed to determine the age of ceramics by scientific means is now being put to use at the heart of the Chinese works of art trade.

MASSACHUSETTS has become the 14th state to ban the sale of novelty cigarette lighters.

A COLLECTION of 85 bosuns’ calls was among items stolen from a home in Milan in early August. Most of the calls were British, but there were also examples from the USA, Italy, China and India.

DEALERS Down Under have successfully fought off the recommendations of a government report that threatened to disrupt the status quo in the Australian art market.

THIEVES have stolen a safe containing £25,000 worth of silver from a church in Woodmangreen, just north of Midhurst, Sussex.

ATG has learnt that the government is seriously considering withdrawing export licences for much of the old rhinoceros horn sold in the UK.

MOST antiques that include the “parts and derivatives” of endangered species enjoy an exemption from CITES controls known as the “worked item” derogation.