Law, crime and regulation

HOPES of finalising a draft of proposals for developing the new Home Office database for beating art crime by the beginning of October have not been realised. It now appears that it will be at least another two months before the proposals can be submitted to the parliamentary committee looking into them for assessment.

PICTURE restorer Andrew Finlay has adapted a piece of techology designed for protecting motorbikes to help beat art theft.

UK: THE dealer charged in connection with the theft of the German Enigma cypher machine from Bletchley Park has been told he could go to jail after admitting receiving stolen goods.

A ‘LOST’ painting by the great 17th century French painter Nicolas Poussin has come to light and will be offered for sale by Galerie Koller in Zurich on October 5.

UK: The trade are being warned to be on their guard following the theft of a Louis XV rococo clock worth in the region of £10,000 from Mayfair dealers Howard Antiques. At approximately 4pm on Tuesday, August 21, a man aged between 40 and 45 and of Eurasian appearance entered the Davies Street shop.

A New York judge has set the date for the start of the trial of Sir Anthony Tennant and Alfred Taubman on price fixing charges.

FRANCE: FRENCH auction law reform should finally be introduced on October 1, although it could take months after that date before overseas auctioneers will be allowed to hold sales.

QXL have temporarily suspended Hugh Scully’s antiques valuation site while they conduct a summer review of their services.

The long debate over droit de suite, the artists resale levy, is over after the European Union finally ratified the measure in Brussels last week.

UK: Kent Trading Standards have confirmed that Barclaycard’s recently launched mobile credit and debit card machines can cut red tape for dealers under the imminent Kent Act.

NEW YORK-based British-born dealer Adam Williams is expected to appeal against his conviction in a French court for receiving stolen property.

UK: A SOLICITOR’S clerk has been banned from his profession after a tribunal heard how he arranged the theft of valuable works of art to order.

USA: THE United States government is taking serious steps to beat Internet fraud and is consulting leading e-commerce figures on how to go about it.

WILLIAM Blake’s painting God Blessing the Seventh Day is one of a number of art treasures placed under a temporary export ban by Arts Minister Tessa Blackstone.

VANDALS are being blamed for a fire that threatened to engulf Eastbourne Auction Rooms last week.

SIX years after a gang stole part of the Luton Hoo Fabergé collection, a new police database succeeded in trapping one of the thieves.

ANYONE who thought that Yahoo’s decision to ban the promotion of Nazi memorabilia from its site would spell the end of legal wranglings over the issue were mistaken.

PRIME Minister Tony Blair has taken the unusual step of announcing that the UK government will vote against droit de suite, the artists resale levy, when the European Union puts it to the final vote.

A number of dealers have contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette concerning a couple passing false cheques in antique shops across Dorset, Devon, Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

UK: THE trial of Dennis Yates, the Nottingham-based radio specialist accused of blackmail and receiving stolen goods after an Enigma code machine was stolen from Bletchley Park Museum, may be delayed by a defence plea to move the venue.