Law, crime and regulation

The UK government is seeking a buyer to pay £2.5m for a group of 18th century botanical drawings.

Three Impressionist paintings believed to be worth over £14m that were taken by the Nazis during the Second World War but recently restituted to the heirs of a French-Jewish art collector will be offered at Sotheby’s in London next month.

The UK government’s arts minister Helen Whately has placed an export bar on a 15th century Middle English manuscript in the hope of finding a buyer to keep it in the UK.

Two men pleaded guilty in connection with the theft of rare books and manuscripts from the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A recent addition to Elgar Practical Guides – a series of handy, concise and practical guides to a range of legal practice areas – has been penned by Martin Wilson, the chief general counsel at Phillips Auctioneers.

The art market must now comply with the latest anti-money laundering law – despite a lack of clarity around some elements of the regulation.

An art and antiques dealer in Hastings is hoping fellow members of the trade can help him recover items stolen from his shop during a break-in last month.

Around 24 enamel advertising signs that were part of a private Victorian steam railway on the McAlpine estate at Fawley Hill in Buckinghamshire have been stolen.

The ‘works of art’ covered by revised anti-money laundering legislation coming into effect in the UK this week exclude key collecting areas, after successful lobbying by art market trade bodies.

Sotheby’s has added its weight to the art market’s response against President Donald Trump’s imposition of import tariffs on Chinese works of art in the US.

An 18th century watercolour miniature by one of India’s greatest painters has been saved for the nation by the British Museum.

A musician is calling on antiques dealers and auction houses to be alert to two stolen bassoons and a Cartier ring that were taken on November 21 from a home in north London.

Three works by Modern British artists will go on display at The Hepworth Wakefield gallery following a donation via the government’s Cultural Gifts Scheme.

The French government has blocked the export of ‘The mocking of Christ’, a medieval panel by Cenni di Pepo (known as Cimabue) that sold in October for €19.5m plus premium at auction house Actéon.

The owner of a Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) painting has been temporarily prevented from exporting the picture by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).