Law, crime and regulation

MADAM – The Public Monuments & Sculpture Association shares many of the concerns which have been expressed in your letters pages since the last statements from Defra on the ivory issue.

MADAM – I have been dealing in Oriental antiques for almost 50 years and have been a supporter of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) for most of this time.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 – 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.