Law, crime and regulation

Christie’s is to appeal last month’s French court ruling that declared Droit de Suite is a charge on the vendor rather than the buyer.

In April dealers and auctioneers were warned to be vigilant about invoice scams on email after fraudsters appeared to have hacked accounts and intercepted invoices. Here one dealer makes a suggestion to help prevent such fraud.

A Petworth dealer has been the victim of a £2200 ‘card not present’ debit card fraud.

A judge has ruled against a London gallery over the seizure by UK Border Force of a Chinese silver tea set containing a tiny quantity of elephant ivory.

Three articles recently published in ATG focused on the sale of a painting and in each case the key issue was authenticity. Here, lawyer Milton Silverman provides advice, including legal precedent, on how auctioneers can avoid disputes relating to authenticity as a result of misattribution.

The way Droit de Suite is applied in France was affirmed by a French court ruling last month.

In ATG’s coverage of Brexit in the past year, we regularly asked which EU-inspired law we could most live without. Unanimously the response was Artist’s Resale Right, a royalty on the resale of art hammered above €1000.

Firms urged to be aware of risk after string of email invoice frauds

MADAM – I write for the purposes of maintaining the trade in general, and in advance of knowing the provisions in the forthcoming law regulating the UK ivory trade (which can only act to the detriment of the trade and do nothing to save the elephant). The law could consider the separation of items solely made of ivory from those that contain ivory as a constituent part.

Stricter rules around the collection and use of data will have a “significant impact” on the art and antiques business, delegates at an Auction Technology Group (ATG) seminar in London were told last week.

The legal impasse surrounding the restitution of thousands of historical documents and manuscripts from the scandal-hit Aristophil investment scheme was finally broken last week.

Munich coin fair raided by 30 police as Nagel moves Asian sale to Austria

Concerns are mounting that a new government money laundering watchdog will lead to further red tape for dealers and auctioneers in the UK.