Law, crime and regulation

PERSONAL VIEW: Jolyon Warwick James, President of the Australian Antique and Art Dealers’ Association (AAADA, NSW Chapter) and chairman of the Australian Antiques and Art Market Federation (AAAMF), examines the problems with the Artist’s Resale Right in Australia.

Portobello Road dealers fear they are being targeted by a gang of robbers after the latest attack on traders this year.

Christie’s have joined auctioneers William J. Jenack in a bid to overturn a legal ruling that says New York salerooms must reveal consignors’ names to buyers.

In the face of strong opposition from the art world, the French government appeared to back down last week from a move to include works of art valued at over €50,000 in annual assessments for wealth tax.

Noble Investments plc, owners of A.H. Baldwin, the coin dealers and auctioneers, have announced that £2.2m in commissions due from “a significant Qatari collector” remains unpaid.

Three men charged in connection with a series of burglaries involving auction houses in the South of England will appear at crown court in January.

Malcolm Hay, the dealer controversially convicted by an Athens court of trading in illegally excavated antiquities, has learnt that the hearing of the appeal he lodged in March 2011 has been delayed until February 1, 2013 owing to disruption caused by strikes in Greece.

Credit card fraud affecting auction houses has reared its ugly head again and the details will sound depressingly familiar to firms already affected.

Three men have been jailed for a total of 18 years for their involvement in the theft of Chinese artefacts from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The 14th century Wenlok Jug has been returned to a Luton museum after it was stolen in May.

Fishermen are reported to have discovered another ancient shipwreck, complete with cargo, in the South China Sea near Vung Tau off the South East coast of Vietnam.

The antiques trade could soon fall victim to the global rattan shortage prompted by an Indonesian export ban.

Leading copyright lawyer Simon Stokes has just published the Second Edition of ‘Artist’s Resale Right’, the industry guide to the law as it applies to Droit de Suite.

A 51-year-old man has been arrested in connection with ‘bounced cheques’ at an antiques fair.

Two men have been jailed for a string of burglaries across the South East which included taking a rhino head from Haslemere Museum in Surrey.

Several items stolen from Derby Museum and Art Gallery’s storage facility have been recovered and two arrests have been made.

Medals awarded to one of Britain’s greatest military heroes are still missing after being stolen from the Redoubt Fortress and Military Museum in Eastbourne.

A temporary export bar has been placed on a Picasso early work which was on display last year at London’s Courtauld Gallery.

COMMENT: The ongoing crisis at the heart of government is becoming a national disease as a proposed change in copyright law illustrates, says Ivan Macquisten

Coins, medals and watches worth over £50,000 have been stolen as a series of museum break-ins continues.