Law, crime and regulation

EBAY’s legal fortunes continue to seesaw, with a Paris court ordering them to pay 230,000 euros to Louis Vuitton Malletier in costs and damages.

A REWARD of £50,000 is being offered in the bid to recover more than £1m worth of art stolen in a violent theft from a private collector in Bruton, Somerset.

Faced with the biggest crisis in its history, the Hôtel Drouot, the central Paris auction venue, has announced sweeping changes to how it is run.

SEVERAL dealers at Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park on Tuesday, January 26, were duped by a woman using a stolen chequebook.

A MAN arrested in connection with passing fraudulent cheques to London dealers has appeared in court.

POLICE are in the process of returning £500,000 worth of antiques after a serial conwoman received a confiscation order earlier this month.

POLICE in North Yorkshire are seeking information following the theft in early January of a 17th century statue from St Andrew's Church, Newton Kyme, Tadcaster.

DROUOT President Georges Delettrez has announced “strong measures with immediate effect” after nine members of staff at the central Paris saleroom (eight warehousemen and one auctioneer) were charged with “criminal association and organised theft” in early December.

POLICE have arrested a man in connection with the passing of fraudulent cheques to London dealers as payment for antiques.

MARK Law, former chairman of Partridge, has joined former directors David Mellor and Christopher Jemmett in their bid to remove their guarantor status relating to the purchase of the firm.

POLICE are investigating cheque frauds perpetrated in London and Warwick.

SPECIALIST dealers believe fake medals from the XXIXth Olympiad in Beijing are appearing for sale on eBay.

SCIENTISTS in the United States have unveiled a ground-breaking piece of technology to identify fake pictures.

AN agreement over the disputed Blue Period Picasso painting The Absinthe Drinker may well lead to a clearer legal definition of what constitutes art sold under Nazi duress.

MARK Law, the former chairman of Partridge Fine Art, has issued a statement confirming his intent to sue the previous owners of the Bond Street dealership for the money he has laid out for the purchase of the firm since 2005.

THE extraordinary saga over Partridge Fine Art has taken another twist with a legal row over claims of long-term systematic fraud and faking by the Bond Street dealership.

Auctioneer Nick Hall of Frank Marshall in Knutsford has issued a warning to dealers and auctioneers to be wary of bogus appointments after he was the victim of a vicious attack.

THE Royal Academy’s 2010 exhibition of treasures from the Liechtenstein Museum has been cancelled after the failure to resolve a long-running dispute over export licences.

THE V&A is to put on an exhibition of fakes curated by the Metropolitan Police Service's Art and Antiques Unit.

THE Hôtel Drouot was rocked to its foundations on December 2 after a massive police swoop ended with 12 people being taken into custody on suspicion of organised theft.