Law, crime and regulation

Dealer and advisor Martyn Downer, a veteran of the temporary export bar process applied to culturally significant works of art or heritage items, says the system is no longer fit for purpose.

News that, within just days, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) has temporarily blocked the export of a Rembrandt valued at £71.7m and an Anglo-Saxon mount (which had already passed through the Portable Antiquities Scheme) priced at £1000 raises questions of the seemingly arbitrary and often baffling nature of the committee’s decisions.

New information on ivory exemption certificates suggests the regulator of The Ivory Act 2018 is continuing to take a robust approach to the trade in antiques made of or containing ivory.

North East Museums (NEM) has acquired a Union Flag that was flown from HMS Royal Sovereign, flagship of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, after it was barred from export.

A lawyer writes: Shipping firm’s three-year battle acts as a warning over enforcement

Preservation and record keeping should be boosted, with auctioneers and dealers also benefiting from clearer rules on ‘legacy finds’

A Suffolk auction house has successfully received an exemption certificate for an early 20th century ivory figure following a complex appeals process.

The art and antiques market is braced to fight rising business rates following government changes in the spring.

One year after the EU’s ‘new’ cultural goods import regime became fully operational, a leading arts and culture lawyer says the EU is failing in its stated objective of combating illicit trade.