Law, crime and regulation

Ivory elements of an important piece of Chippendale furniture were removed prior to its appearance at auction earlier this year, ATG has learned.

A leading US culture lawyer has testified at Washington, DC trade hearings about how a Chinese art import tariff would have a negative effect on small and medium-sized US dealers.

Copyright can be a minefield for original works when others claim it was based on their initial creations

Trade associations have defended the current firearms laws in the UK amid accusations on a BBC Panorama programme of a ‘loophole’ in gun control.

MADAM – ATG letter correspondents Peter Cameron and Gavin Littaur (ATG Nos 2353, 2355) have hit the nail on the head in many ways.

Silver dealer Michael Baggott is appealing to the trade to help in the documentation of antique ivory objects after the proposed legislation becomes law.

MADAM – A friend in the trade asked me over a year ago, ‘what will you do if antiques containing ivory are made illegal?’. Since then I’ve given it serious thought. What can any of us do?

MADAM – Peter Cameron writes in ATG No 2353 that only 691 people have signed the ivory petition [now at 1688 as we go to press], that a response from the government requires 10,000 signatures, and that 100,000 are needed to raise a parliamentary debate.

Dealers and auctioneers in the US and UK are mobilising in the hope of removing works of art from the thousands of items caught up in the escalating US-China trade war.

The US-China trade war, previously the stuff of new technology, heavy industry and agribusiness, has now opened a new front: cultural heritage. The threat of a 25% tariff on imported Chinese art and antiques will soon be discussed in Washington, DC.

MADAM – Six hundred and ninety-one people is actually a fairly decent response from a trade in which there are only a handful of interested parties (Letters, ATG No 2353).