Category Archives: Criminal Law

Shedding light on an opaque market: The latest anti-money laundering guidance for the UK art market

Posted on: December 8, 2022 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

The latest guidance on the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations as they pertain to the UK art market has finally brought about some much-needed clarification on some aspects of the regulations that had remained up until now somewhat difficult to comprehend and, more importantly, apply to day to day business. There are many aspects of the […]

Attacks on art and the law’s response: what fate awaits the Van Gogh soup throwers?

Posted on: October 17, 2022 by Emily Gould

Protests involving works of art and cultural property are nothing new. From the slashing of the Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery in 1914 to the defacing of a Rothko mural at Tate Modern almost a century later, those seeking to draw attention to a cause have long recognised the publicity value of attacks on […]

Philbrick sentenced to seven year jail term – a rogue bad apple or a pawn in an industry rotten to its core?

Posted on: June 1, 2022 by Emily Gould

Art dealer turned con-artist Inigo Philbrick was sentenced last week by a US District Court to seven years behind bars. Described as “a serial swindler who took advantage of the lack of transparency in the art market” Philbrick defrauded numerous art traders, lenders and investors out of a reported US $86 million in a series […]

Acquittal of the ‘Colston Four’ – jury gives verdict in statue toppling trial

Posted on: January 12, 2022 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds

On Thursday 6 January, four defendants accused of illegally damaging the Grade II listed statue of Edward Colston in the UK port city of Bristol were found not guilty by their jury. For those not familiar with the story, it began with the toppling of the statue back in June 2020, during protests in the […]

Anglo-Saxon brooch returned to local museum after more than a quarter century

Posted on: September 23, 2021 by Emily Gould

All too often in the field of art law we read about looting, destruction and loss, heritage subjected to risks and threats the world over. It sometimes feels like happy endings are rarer than hens’ teeth. Even less common, perhaps, are art world stories which have a very personal resonance. However, a story which came […]

A tale of two protests: Museum protest then and now

Posted on: November 9, 2020 by Alexander Herman

Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza (left) is a man on a mission. A prolific protestor at museums in France and the Netherlands, he targets objects on display that originate from Africa, lifts them from their stands and parades them around the galleries while making pronouncements on the crimes of European colonialism. ‘Je part avec à la maison,’ he […]

Art and Dishonesty: The New Test

Posted on: August 12, 2020 by Geoffrey Bennett

When the worlds of Art and Crime collide consideration of the issue of ‘dishonesty’ is not likely to be far behind. Not only is it a crucial ingredient in theft it also permeates other offences such as fraud under the Fraud Act 2006, or Conspiracy to Defraud at common law, and the specific offence of […]

Man jailed following attempted theft of Magna Carta

Posted on: July 28, 2020 by Paul Stevenson

Readers of this blog may recall the 2018 attempted theft by Mark Royden of Salisbury Cathedral’s copy of Magna Carta. Reports confirm that Royden attacked the document’s protective case before being pursued by members of the public, including American tourists, cathedral staff, and stonemasons, who detained him in a works yard outside. In a welcome […]

‘Embarrassingly out of kilter’ law destroys 46,000-year-old Aboriginal sacred sites

Posted on: June 17, 2020 by Elizabeth Pearson

The destruction of 46,000-year-old sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in Western Australia has prompted a national inquiry and calls for urgent reform of Indigenous cultural heritage law. During a mine expansion project, Rio Tinto detonated explosives in the Juukan Gorge in May, destroying two deep cave sites of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP). […]

Recent report on the illicit antiquities trade receives mixed response

Posted on: June 10, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

A UNESCO-backed research project into the illicit trade in cultural property in Germany has recently released its final report. The ‘ILLICID Project’, launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aimed to increase understanding of illicit trafficking networks and financial flows linked to organised crime and terrorism. However, the findings of the final […]