Law, crime and regulation

$45m fine for Sotheby’s but five years to pay: Diana ‘Dede’ Brooks, former president and chief executive of Sotheby’s, has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan Federal Court to price-fixing with Christie’s between 1993 and 1999.

FRANCE: RARELY can so many leading lights in the international art and antiques business have been gathered in the same room as happened at the luxurious George V hotel in Paris on Tuesday, October 3.

UK: THE Court of Appeal has set a precedent under case law which forces auctioneers to sell to the highest bidder where a reserve has not been set, regardless of how low the winning bid is.

Sotheby’s board of directors have approved payment of $256m to clients in the civil lawsuit which claimed collusion with Christie’s in setting charges for buyers in 1992 and sellers in 1995.

ACADEMY Auctioneers, London, have vowed to fulfil their commitments to existing clients, despite disputes over the sale of the company.

UK: THE London Chamber of Commerce are alerting dealers and auctioneers to a tightening in Customs regulations for those wanting temporary export licences for antiques – in particular jewellery.

UK: AN extensive Antiques Trade Gazette investigation has uncovered a string of complaints from dealers about a freight company, Gold Vale Associates operating as Radford International Movers, of Billericay in Essex.

THE French courts have suspended Yahoo’s appeal against a ban on its Web auctions of Nazi memorabilia while technical experts see if there is a way to prevent French Web-users gaining access to them.

A DISPUTE between a leading Web auctioneer and a dealer has highlighted a significant difference between Internet and live sales that could have widespread implications for the trade.

UK: Arts Minister Alan Howarth welcomed the launch last month of ArtResolve, a non-profit making company specialising in the resolution of disputes about works of art and antiquity.

UK: CHESTER antiques dealer Alan Shindler has been jailed for six months for handling and selling fake goods. And Trading Standards officers issued an alert to former trade customers in case they were duped.

UK: THE Culture Select Committee investigating the illicit trade of cultural goods has stopped short of demanding tough legislation that might inadvertently harm legitimate business.

A House of Commons Committee has been appointed to examine the Kent County Council Bill in detail.

A UK SECURITY marking company has launched a new anti-theft process that effectively gives each item covered its own DNA profile for the police to identify.

FRANCE’S auction reform has been definitively adopted by parliament after its final reading in the Senate on June 27.

FRANCE: FOLLOWING the recent agreement on a definitive text by a bicameral parliamentary commission, France’s auction reform was adopted by the Assemblée Nationale on May 23 and is slated for its final reading in the Senate on June 27.

UK: THE panel looking into whether UK collections and institutions should return Nazi looted art to its original owners or compensate them has unveiled the criteria and procedures which will determine its judgements.

UK: THE MINISTER for the Arts, Alan Howarth, made it clear last week that he was not going to be rushed into further regulating the trade in art and antiquities.

UK: The Passage through parliament of the Kent County Council and Medway Bills – designed to regulate the trade in all forms of second-hand goods in the county – has been held up until the autumn.

UK: ARTS MINISTER Alan Howarth has set up a panel of experts to examine the illicit trade in art and antiquities with a view to advising the Government on steps to fight it.