Law, crime and regulation

Police have arrested a man in connection with the murder of antiques dealer Robyn Mercer who was found beaten to death at her home in West Molesey, Surrey.

Tighter regulations surrounding fraud and money laundering are prompting French banks to close the euro accounts of some UK dealers and shippers.

Specialist taxidermy dealer Alexis Turner has lost a significant portion of his stock following an extraordinary raid on a London warehouse.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service have announced a new programme to “help reduce the overall ivory market”.

The British Antiques Dealers Association has met with HM Treasury officials as part of its campaign against HMRC plans to require all businesses to file tax returns on a quarterly, digital basis from 2020.

A temporary export bar has been placed on Femme, a 15in (37cm) plaster sculpture made by Alberto Giacometti c.1928-29.

A decade on since Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) was launched in the UK, over £50m has been collected from auctions and dealers for artists and their heirs.

Police are investigating a raid on The Old Mill Antiques Centre in Bridgnorth, Shrophire.

Tributes are being paid to Richard Cole, a Gloucestershire specialist in Asian works of art, whose body was discovered in the Herengracht canal in Amsterdam on February 1.

The Art Loss Register (ALR) has located two paintings stolen from a home in Amsterdam in 2010.

Arthur Swallow Fairs, organisers of the Lincolnshire Antiques & Home Show, have chosen to ‘phoenix’ their company to avoid a tax liability dating back three years.

A jury in New York lost their chance to rule on the first of several lawsuits against the Knoedler Gallery and its former director Ann Freedman when the suits were settled out of court.

Export bars have been placed on the robes and dagger of TE Lawrence (1888-1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, in a bid to keep the items in the UK.

Roman and Etruscan antiquities believed to have been obtained from illicit excavations were found by police in 45 crates belonging to Robin Symes, a high-profile British art dealer who served seven months in Pentonville prison in 2005.

Expert witnesses were called to give evidence during legal proceedings between Domenico De Sole, chairman of Sotheby’s, and Ann Freedman, the former president of Knoedler gallery, over the sale of a fake Rothko painting.

Michigan art dealer Eric Spoutz was arrested on February 3 on a federal charge of selling forged artworks.

A painting of a Parisian street scene stolen in New York has been recovered by the Art Recovery Group. The painting had been consigned to a Miami art gallery in November last year by a private individual.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a pair of 17th century Italian ebony, ormolu and hardstone inlaid cabinets in the hope that they can be saved for the nation.

Fake works purporting to be Damien Hirst studio paintings are circulating on the UK regional art and antiques market.

An increasingly bitter spat between two UK art recovery agencies – the Art Loss Register and the Art Recovery Group – has reached the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.