Legal Cases

A HIGH Court judge has retired to consider his ruling in a case that could revolutionise the terms under which auctioneers do business.

PARIS auctioneer Jean-Claude Binoche has been given an eight-month suspended jail sentence, and fined €100,000, after a Paris court found him guilty of fraud.

INITIAL arguments in the £1.75m High Court dispute between Christie’s and Taylor Lynne Thomson over a pair of porphyry urns indicate that both parties intend to fight their corner vigorously.

Paris auctioneer Jean-Claude Binoche has been charged with fraud in connection with the sale of three pictures in 1995. Binoche, 61, is accused of buying two works himself at an auction he staged on 18 October 1995, which is illegal under French law, and of selling another work after the sale (a Prud’hon drawing, to the Beaux-Arts museum in Dijon). After-sales were illegal in France at the time, although they have been permitted since 2001.

ARTS Minister Estelle Morris will hold a seminar for the trade on the new UK measures to restrict the illicit trade in cultural objects. Slated for January 15 in the BP Lecture Theatre, at the Clore Education Centre of the British Museum, the session will see Miss Morris give a presentation on the UK implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003 and the new Money Laundering Regulations.

AUCTIONEERS may be forced to change the way they catalogue objects if a High Court ruling goes against them next year.

THE Chicago Clearing Corporation, the US traders in class action certificates, are to visit London again to buy and sell the vouchers issued following the Christie’s/Sotheby’s collusion case settlement.

Representatives of a US company trading in class action certificates are coming to London to meet UK recipients of vouchers relating to the Sotheby’s/Christie’s price-fixing settlement in the USA.

THE company appointed to administer the Sotheby’s/Christie’s price fixing settlement in Europe have apologised for the error on the compensation claim forms which has delayed the process. The Garden City Group, who sent out the forms last month, transcribed the compensation amounts in dollars rather than pounds sterling. The amounts were listed in the section of the form titled Pre-Printed Transactions Supplied by Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

A BASIC clerical error seems certain to delay compensation payments linked to the Sotheby’s/Christie’s price fixing settlement, it has emerged. At least in some cases, the figures quoted in forms sent out notifying claimants of their entitlements have been transcribed in dollars rather than in sterling.

A federal judge has ordered dotcom giant eBay Inc. to pay $29m (£18.3m) to a Virginia inventor who accused the company of stealing his ideas for holding and searching online auctions. Ruling in Virginia on August 6, US District Court Judge Jerome Friedman said there was “no dispute” that the online auction site eBay had infringed patents which covered ways for people to make online bids backed by credit cards and purchase items over the Internet for a fixed price.

A Massachusetts auction house is being sued for breach of contract and malpractice after a Chinese vase it sold for $23,000 returned to auction six months later at Christie’s Hong Kong where it brought $1.55m.

S.J. Shrubsole, the well-known silver dealership of New York, have pleaded guilty to failing to collect around $75,000 in city and state sales taxes on over $900,000 worth of goods. The gallery also pleaded guilty to falsifying tax returns filed with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. They have now paid $150,000 in fines relating to the plea.

LAPADA has issued some valuable guidelines to the recipients of cheques relating to the Sotheby’s and Christie’s price-fixing settlement in the USA. As the cheques began to arrive by post last week many were surprised to see that the US Federal Government had deducted a withholding tax from the awards.

A man who had a 17th century Dutch panel painting stolen from his home more than 20 years ago has failed in an Appeal Court to win compensation from Christie’s, who offered the picture for sale in 1997. Key to the test case was Christie’s ability to show they had acted in good faith, adding further legal weight to the importance of due diligence.

Potential impact on legal trade still not clear: Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has set out a five-point plan for the future protection of cultural objects in the light of the looting in Iraq. Central to the plan is the adoption of MP Richard Allan’s Private Member’s Bill, which failed to proceed in parliament earlier this year.

A NUMBER of dealers and collectors have contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette about notifications they have received concerning the settlement of claims relating to the Sotheby’s and Christie’s collusion case.

A JUNE 3 New York court hearing will rule whether Sotheby’s and Christie’s should pay $40m compensation to clients who bought and sold at their auctions outside the US during the 1990s.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s have each agreed to pay $20m (£13m) to clients who bought and sold antiques at auctions held outside America.

A VENDOR who believes an auctioneer’s negligence cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds says he will sue despite leading experts dismissing the disputed piece as a 20th century reproduction.