Law, crime and regulation

A harpsichord that was sold at The Canterbury Auction Galleries in 2018 to a US buyer and later barred from export by the government has been saved for the nation by Gainsborough’s House museum.

Court of Appeal judges have dismissed the latest attempt to stop the Ivory Act.

A government department has confirmed to ATG that auction houses in England will be able to open to the public in June and conduct home valuations, as long as social distancing and the latest government guidelines are met.

A group of Mesopotamian antiquities destined for collectors in the UK was discovered to be fake and seized in an operation by Border Force and the British Museum.

A collection of cameras, photographs and accessories put together by a private collector for more than 45 years has been stolen from a storage unit in north London.

A Vincent Van Gogh painting from the early part of the artist’s career has been stolen from a museum in the Netherlands.

Police are trying to trace antique jewellery stolen by burglars from Norah’s Antiques in Oxford.

Detectives are appealing for information after five deactivated guns used in James Bond movies were stolen from a residential address in Enfield, North London.

The owner of a painting by Mod Brit artist Terry Frost (1915-2003) is appealing for help after he left it on a train from London to Milton Keynes on January 23.

Arts Council England has appointed the Institute of Art and Law to help form new guidance for institutions around the thorny issues of restitution and repatriation of cultural objects.

Three Old Master paintings, including Annibale Carracci’s A Boy Drinking, have been stolen from a museum in Oxford.

Art and antiques dealers welcomed news from Chancellor Rishi Sunak that the government will abolish business rates for small businesses this year but warned more still needs to be done.