This summer a new ‘Missing Books Register’ aims to help tackle the recent surge of high-profile book thefts. Launched by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), the register encourages booksellers to check if books have been reported missing before selling them.
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Last week, the International Criminal Police (INTERPOL) released a new app – called ID-Art – which allows users to check and even report stolen artworks using just their smart phone.
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The world-renowned Uffizi Galleries in Florence have reopened to the public, following a year of sporadic covid-related closures and the remapping of new rooms.
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In the art world, confidentiality is king. But that can be a challenge for claimants in art fraud cases. However, help is at hand in the form of Norwich Pharmacal applications, as the case of Hickox v Dickinson [2020] EWHC 2520 (Ch) shows.
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Reality TV star and beauty mogul Kim Kardashian must forfeit an ancient Roman sculpture, according to a recent civil forfeiture action filed by the United States government. Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage released a statement concluding the work was “looted, smuggled, and illegally exported.”
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Germany has announced its intention to return their considerable collection of looted Benin bronzes to Nigeria in 2022. This is a landmark moment in the restitution of looted art, and Germany’s decision has made them the first country to hand back their Benin bronzes.
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For almost 60 years a National Gallery painting was dismissed as a copy and languished in their storerooms, but now experts have confirmed it is indeed an original work by the renowned French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665).
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Neighbouring residents of Tate Modern are heading to the Supreme Court over allegations of “relentless” privacy invasion. The five Neo Bankside claimants are battling to close part of the tenth floor viewing gallery that reportedly allows “hundreds of thousands of visitors” to see inside their homes.
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The Parisian court of appeal has ruled that an iconic German painting, seized under suspicion of forgery in 2016, must now be returned to its owner Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein.
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It was revealed last week that an ancient Roman marble statue, which was stolen from the Villa Marini Dettina archaeological site near Rome in 2011, was located in an antique shop in Brussels earlier this year.
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