Law, crime and regulation

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.

FRANCE: A Paris court has told one of the world’s leading Websites to prevent French Web-users from gaining access to auctions featuring Nazi memorabilia.

FRANCE: THE reform of France’s auction system now looks in sight following an agreement reached by a bicameral commission drawn from members of both the country’s parliamentary chambers.

UK: The Kent County Council and Medway Bills, which will regulate the trade in art and antiques in the county, are to go forward to the committee stage after their second reading in the House of Commons on May 17.

FRANCE: AFTER two readings in both the Sénat and Assemblée Nationale, France’s auction reform bill still awaits ratification.

FRANCE: SEVENTEEN terracotta statuettes from Nigeria (Nok) and Niger (Bura), expected to bring prices between £250 and £5000, were withdrawn from sale at the Hôtel Drouot on April 21 after last-minute objections from Nigeria and Niger.

UK: Trade risks cutbacks in police commitment over due diligence.

UK: LEADING representatives of the trade have given evidence before the Culture Select Committee which is considering whether Britain should introduce new laws to tackle art theft and trade in illegally exported antiques.

GERMANY: New technology looks set to cause a leap forward in German retail practice.

UK: ANOTHER dealer has fallen foul of a credit card con only a month after the Antiques Trade Gazette warned the Trade about following correct security procedures during transactions.

UK: POLICE investigating the theft of 70 works of art – including several Lowrys – from a private collector in Northamptonshire in January have arrested a total of three men.

UK: INVESTIGATIONS by a Surrey antiques dealer have uncovered a crime spree by what appears to be a single gang right across the South East of England.

FRANCE: THE French auction law reform bill had its second reading in the Senate on February 23 and, according to National President Gérard Champin, “90 per cent of the text has now been approved”.

US: THE sudden resignations of Sotheby's chief executive Diana 'Dede' Brooks and chairman Alfred Taubman have come in the wake of the investigation into alleged commission fixing which has seen the company's stock plummet by 60 per cent since the start of this year.