Law, crime and regulation

Portobello Road antiques dealers have a fresh chance to air their views about police cover in the area now that a public meeting has been rearranged.

When police raided one of the most prominent January coin sales in New York no-one was quite sure why.

The second most significant gem of its type in the country – a Parthian-Sassanian intaglio (in brown-grey agate) – has been stolen from a house near Evesham.

Paintings and smaller works of art dating back to the time the first Duke of Wellington moved into the house given to him by a grateful nation have been stolen.

Baroness Wilcox, the minister responsible for the Artist’s Resale Right, has told postcard campaigner Niall Fairhead that the Government won’t change the qualifying threshold for the levy.

Proposals to extend copyright on some designs from 25 to 70 years could set off a whole new era of legal disputes.

Below is the full text of the statement made by Baroness Wilcox, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, on June 14, 2012.

Antique firearm collectors and dealers are at risk of prosecution because of gun ownership laws. The warning comes from firearms law expert Laura Saunsbury, of Lewis Nedas & Co solicitors in Camden, London. The firm have been involved in recent cases where possession of antique weapons has been the issue.

Pressure for better police cover is starting to pay off for Portobello antiques dealers – but they say there is still much to be done. The traders have been incensed by cuts that left just four officers to patrol the area in pairs on Saturdays despite a recent rise in robberies, and demanded action on extra patrols.

COMMENT: As reported last week, the postcard campaign launched by art dealer Niall Fairhead in a bid to raise the threshold for the Artist's Resale Right has made progress, attracting more signatories for the online petition and eliciting answers from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

Four suspected thieves were due to appear in court in connection with a series of burglaries at six auction houses in the south of England last year.

A medieval Nottingham alabaster plaque prised away from a London church has been recovered after the appeal in ATG.

COMMENT: More than 60,000 visitors on a summer Saturday, one of the most popular tourist spots in the UK, a name so recognised internationally that the local council wants to brand a Crossrail station after it... there are plenty of reasons to protect Portobello‘s antiques trade.

Close to 800 postcards in the Artist’s Resale Right campaign have already arrived at the Department of Culture, with more on the way.

An alarming rise in violent robberies on antiques dealers in Portobello Road has spurred them into action to call for better police cover, CCTV cameras and even private security guards.

A federal judge has declared the 1977 California Resale Royalty Act unconstitutional.

Two more churches have been hit by thieves in the latest of a series of break-ins targeting medieval monuments and carvings.

The English Supreme Court has ruled that expert witnesses will no longer enjoy immunity from civil lawsuits when giving evidence in either civil or criminal legal proceedings.

Comment: Nicholas Somers, FNAVA. FRSA.

Ramraiders have stolen more than 50 silver and jewellery items worth up to £20,000 from an auction house in Worcestershire.