Law, crime and regulation

“There are 12 symbols in the Chinese language for the word fake – and each means something slightly different”.

Police are appealing for help from the antiques trade to trace two men captured on CCTV at the scene of a watches burglary in London.

Police are investigating the theft of a distinctive painting from a house in the Old Town, Hastings.

Staff at The Swan at Tetsworth say it is ‘business as usual’ despite the dramatic ram-raid at the Oxfordshire antiques centre last weekend.

Thieves who target cultural property or items of great sentimental value will face tougher sentences under new rules.

Stakeholders in the Italian art market will meet lawmakers this week in the hope of overturning legislation they say has hampered the country’s art market for a century.

A new law giving online auction buyers additional consumer protection rights has been criticised for throwing dealers and auction houses into a legal grey area.

A bizarre story of an artist who claimed her old studio sold pieces of paint spattered carpet as her original work has appeared in the press recently, drawing attention to the thorny issue of copyright and false attribution.

The Law Commission is still keen to hear from collectors and dealers about the impact a legal definition of ‘antique firearm’ may have on the trade in period weapons.

An American businessman has been charged in a New York court accused of applying improper valuations to items sold from his art and antiques collection.

Victoria Borwick MP has pledged to lobby against possible changes in legislation that could adversely affect the art and antiques trade, telling the industry to “see me as your champion in parliament”.

Valuable paintings stolen in a violent raid at a Somerset estate in 2009 have been returned to their original owners after being recovered by private investigators.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with a theft at the Masterpiece fair held in July at the Royal Hospital site in Chelsea.

The Metropolitan Police has appealed to readers of ATG to contact them if they are offered two Georgian porcelain cups and saucer sets stolen from Osterley Park House, London in July.

Dealers, collectors and auctioneers of antique firearms are being invited to a meeting in London to discuss proposed changes to the law governing the sale and ownership of such weapons.

Showground fair organisers have reacted with disappointment to the news that exhibitors must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals.

COMMENT: So we finally have a ruling from the VAT tribunal but it is not good news.

In Germany, software billionaire Hasso Plattner has become the latest collector to demonstrate opposition to the proposed cultural property law changes.

Exhibitors at British showground fairs must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals, a tribunal has decided.

The antiques industry is being called on to take part in a consultation to reform the law governing the sale and ownership of antique firearms.