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A leading CITES lawyer has criticised DEFRA’s “wholesale failure” to alert the public to law changes, after a court fined a jeweller £2000 for selling antique tiger claw pendants.

Last week in London, it was hard to know where to be or look as, alongside the major Impressionist and Modern art auctions, ‘Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair’ and ‘Masterpiece London’ at the Royal Hospital Chelsea coincided for the first time.

The law on tiger jewellery is frequently flouted. Last week on eBay – a site that operates a ban on antique ivory – several items of big cat jewellery were on sale from UK vendors.

A group of restituted paintings were among the highlights of a robust series of Impressionist and Modern art auctions in London.

Art dealer David Carter has admitted intentionally selling fake paintings purporting to be by well-known Cornish artists. He has pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud at Truro crown court and may face jail.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have well-established specialist departments for brokering deals on sale of Nazi-looted works returned to rightful heirs. Over the last decade some major pieces of Impressionist and Modern art have come to auction as a result of restitution settlements.

Christie’s has agreed to withdraw seven pictures, including two by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, from its July 9 and 10 sales after owners the Alfred Beit Foundation asked to postpone their sale.

“The ivory ban has been a right old dampener on the market as a whole but after taking time to consider its implications, collectors are coming back.”

A fine 1875 vintage… never opened… so what did this bottle of wine sell for?

Online sellers who use eBay are the focus of fresh attempts by HM Revenue & Customs to crack down on tax evasion.

A couple of recently restituted works of art drew prolonged bidding at Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art in London including Gustav Klimt's (1862-1918) portrait of Gertrud Loew which was the top lot of the night at £22m.

In the 1984 book ‘The Late Paintings and Drawings of John Constable’ by Graham Reynolds, a pencil drawing of the back and shoulders of the artist’s wife Mrs Maria Constable (nee Bicknell) is described as ‘whereabouts unknown’.

A Sir William Orpen nude is set to be the star lot at the relaunched Sotheby’s Irish Art sale in London on October 21.

Two senior members of the international auctioneering profession launch separate online-only ventures this week.

Parking restrictions imposed in and around Battersea Park for the first Formula E electric car race on June 27-28 may impact on visitors to the Masterpiece London fair, held nearby at the Royal Hospital Chelsea from June 25 to July 1.

The divergence in charges between the FAB model and the traditional model grows exponentially as prices rise. However, as this series of examples show, there is a lower threshold of around $5000 below which it is less cost effective.

The US Court of Appeals has ruled that the California Resale Royalty Act (CRRA) can stand but apply only to sales made within the state and not to those made out-of-state by California residents.

Asian Art has blossomed in Paris this month. Items that combined quality, rarity and provenance generated fierce bidding at sales at Drouot and the various salerooms around the French capital.

Noelle McElhatton has been appointed editor of Antiques Trade Gazette, replacing Ivan Macquisten who has left the magazine to establish a media consultancy.