Law, crime and regulation

The administrator BDO’s report into the collapse of Mossgreen has recommended that the Australian auction house’s former management be investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over possible criminal activities.

MADAM – We are all devastated at what is being proposed by the government in relation to ivory.

MADAM – I am sending you a photo of some small sewing tools in carved ivory, made c.1840.

Auctioneers have told ATG the preparations they are making for sweeping new rules that will affect how they store and use personal data, due to be implemented in the EU on May 25.

The theft of a piece of pottery from an antiques centre in Hampshire has been met with responses from other shop and centre owners reporting similar occurrences.

A New York law banning the sale of antique ivory has been challenged in court by two leading US antiques dealers associations.

Avon and Somerset police are appealing for information after a raid on the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath.

MADAM – Last year readers may recall a Victorian presentation ‘ivory tusk’ dinner gong was removed from display in one of the Royal Collection exhibitions.

MADAM – Thank you for printing my previous correspondence (ATG No 2337). If I thought that a ban on pre-1947 ivory would stop the death of 50 elephants I would stop writing.

MADAM – The government’s ill-conceived attack on antique ivory will likely mean that two pieces in my home – a 19th century Cantonese puzzle-ball chess set and my wife’s Corpus Christi acquired shortly after our marriage 50 years ago – now have no value in probate.

MADAM – As a dealer (and collector) in antique needlework tools and other small collectables, I am dismayed and angered by the proposals for the ivory ban as outlined in detail in last week’s ATG.

Consignors to collapsed Australian auction house Mossgreen will not have to pay fees to have items returned, a Sydney court has ruled.

MADAM – I would suggest sending a copy of last week’s ATG guide to the ivory ban to every MP with an appropriate covering letter.

BADA has clarified a key element of the government’s proposals for a near-complete ivory ban – the stipulation that all items qualifying for the ‘rarest and most important of its type’ and portrait miniature exemptions must be 100 years old.