Tag Archives: council

UK Government extends export ban on Sekhemka statue

Posted on: October 27, 2015 by Alexander Herman

This is a short update on our piece from this summer about the export ban placed on the £15 million Sekhemka statue. While it may have seemed doubtful that a UK entity would be willing (or, more importantly, able) to buy the statue and keep it in the country, there does now appear to be interest in doing so. […]

Two important recommendations on Nazi-era loot

Posted on: September 24, 2015 by Alexander Herman

The Spoliation Advisory Panel, the UK body that hears disputes relating to Nazi-looted art held in national collections, has delivered two important reports this month. The first is a follow-up on an earlier 2014 recommendation that the Tate return a Constable painting, ‘Beaching a Boat, Brighton’, to the descendants of the painting’s original owner, Baron Hatvany of Hungary. The Baron had […]

Will Sekhemka remain in the UK?

Posted on: August 12, 2015 by Alexander Herman

The famous Sekhemka statue is in the news again. This is the Egyptian Old Kingdom sculpture thought to represent a court official that had once been in the possession of Northampton Borough Council and displayed at the Northampton Museum. The statue sold at auction last year for £15.76 million, but not before garnering controversy on a number […]

Old Flo is here to stay… in Tower Hamlets, that is

Posted on: July 9, 2015 by Alexander Herman

Judgment was handed down yesterday in an important case involving a Henry Moore sculpture (Draped Seated Woman) lovingly known as ‘Old Flo’. The sculpture, bought from the artist by London County Council in 1962 to be publicly displayed in the city’s East End, has been at the centre of a dispute between two London boroughs: […]

New book on Richard III discovery

Posted on: April 15, 2015 by Alexander Herman

A book has recently been published by the team from Leicester University that uncovered the bones of Richard III in a Leicester car park in February 2013. Entitled The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered, it was written by the Greyfriars research team with Maev Kennedy and Len Foxhall. Of course we have commented on […]

Earthquakes and archaeology: the case of Christchurch, New Zealand

Posted on: February 16, 2015 by Rosemary Baird

On 4 September 2010 an earthquake of 7.1 magnitude struck the Canterbury region of New Zealand. It was followed by thousands of aftershocks, including one of 6.3 magnitude that struck the city of Christchurch on 22 February 2011. It caused widespread destruction of buildings and 185 deaths. A national state of emergency was declared. Today, almost four years later, […]

Former Vichy law on exporting works of art from France declared unconstitutional

Posted on: December 8, 2014 by Mathilde Roellinger

The French Constitutional Council, in a decision rendered on 14 November 2014, declared that article 2 of the law of 23 June 1941 concerning the export of works of art did not comply with the Constitution. The application for a priority preliminary ruling was submitted by an owner of precious furniture who, in the 1980s, […]

Northampton and the Sekhemka statue

Posted on: November 14, 2014 by Alexander Herman

Northampton Borough Council, which had earlier this year sold at auction a rare Egyptian statue in its collection for £15.76 million, has been dealt another blow. The 4,000-year-old statue of Sekhemka, an Egyptian Old Kingdom artefact thought to represent a court official and high priest, had originally been bestowed by the Marquess of Northampton sometime […]