Legal Cases

A WHITE knight has stepped forward with an offer to rescue the Wedgwood Museum collection after a High Court judgment ruled it should be sold off to pay pension scheme creditors.

THE days of informal scrapping of precious metals such as gold and silver could well be numbered after a new Bill was put before Parliament on November 15 to tackle theft.

A GROUP of American artists have filed class action lawsuits against Christie’s and Sotheby’s complaining they have violated the 1976 California Resale Royalty Act.

THE Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts have decided to dissolve the controversial Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board in early 2012.

A LONG-running anti-trust complaint against the Andy Warhol Foundation – one that caused them to close the authentication service – concerned a work denied twice by their board.

FOUR people have gone on trial in Germany on charges linked to a multi-million pound art fraud exposed as a result of scientific testing on paint.

TWO men have been charged with handling stolen goods following the recovery of a number of pictures from the Halewood area of Liverpool.

THE US Appeals Court has upheld the New York District Court ruling in Christie’s favour in the dispute over a long-lost work thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci.

A house clearer has won a High Court battle to regain possession of a pair of medieval embroideries thought to be worth millions after a longstanding dispute with a fine art specialist.

ANTIQUES fairs will be able to continue at Swinderby for some time, despite the site’s prospective development as a gravel pit.

THE owner of a tearoom in Horncastle, Lincolnshire claims he is a victim of bureaucracy after he was told he could face prosecution for selling antiques from the premises.

A MAN who stole antiques worth more than £1.2m from country houses across the country has been jailed for nine years.

DETERMINING whether something is an artwork or not is at the centre of an appeal to the UK Supreme Court in a copyright dispute between Star Wars producer George Lucas and one of his former prop makers.

THE saga of the portrait sold by Christie’s in 1998 as ‘19th century German’, but now claimed as a long-lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, has taken a new turn following the dismissal of the complaint against Christie’s lodged by the work’s consignor.

THE Greek courts have commuted the sentence of antiquities dealer Malcolm Hay from four years to three, suspended for three years.

THE case of a hacker who stole more than £180,000 from eBay users has highlighted weaknesses in PayPal’s procedures.

THE Office of Fair Trading has taken action against companies that offer to buy gold from consumers by post.

ANTIQUITIES dealer Malcolm Hay must wait until February 18 for the appeal against his conviction for trafficking in illegally excavated artefacts to be heard in the Greek courts.

THE U.S. Supreme Court in Washington has delivered a significant blow to Tiffany & Co’s bid to stop the sale of counterfeit jewellery on eBay.

THE danger of taking commission on deals without the express knowledge of the vendor has been underlined by a High Court ruling. In it, a London dealer has been told that he was not entitled to keep a $1m commission he retained following the sale of a Leonardo da Vinci drawing in August 2007.