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30th June 2012 contents AUCTION REPORTS
How quality can make up for condition Page 17
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Tel: +44 (0) 20 7420 6675 George Wade Carl Nestor Page 8-9 Page 16-17 Page 20 Page 22-25 Page 28-30 Page 34-36 Page 38-43 Page 50-52 Page 53 Page 54-55 Page 55 Page 44 Page 45 Page 45-49 news
How the West can look East
Right: ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten is pictured at the Olympia fair on June 12 chairing a debate on how the West should adapt to the demands of the Chinese/Asian market.
On the rostrum with him were Bonhams’ deputy chairman and global head of Asian Art Colin Sheaf, IP specialist lawyer Ben Goodger, of Edwards Wildman, director of Hong Kong Fair Fine Art Asia Andy Hei, and Kate Bryan, head of Contemporary art at The Fine Art Soci- ety. All have extensive experience working in Hong Kong and China and gave some valuable insights into how to go about business there, as well as what to expect in future. The audience heard how China should not be considered as a single nation with a single people, but as a civilisation comprised of a large number of different groups. Mainlanders, Hong Kong Chinese, Western-based Chinese and Taiwanese all have different views and attitudes, advised the panel. Key considerations also included guanxi, the system of building business relationships, what moti-
vates buyers, how they see the market and cultural differences evident in attitudes to what the West may see as fakes, but the Chinese as tribute pieces. ■ Visit
www.antiquestradegazette.com for a fuller report on the debate.
Firearms law causes confusion continued from front page
have to prosecute everything to the hilt. If there is any doubt at all they prosecute and let the court determine it in a trial situation.” She frequently finds heself representing
“people who are what you would describe as an upstanding member of the public”. What happens quite often is that they come into contact with the police for some other completely unconnected reason, such as an allegation of a domestic disturbance, or something else that causes the police to arrest them, and that leads officers to visit the home address. “It comes to light they’ve got certain
firearms in their possession which are not on a certificate, and that is what often prompts the criminal investigation and prosecution for firearms offences,” said Ms Saunsbury. Firearms law leaves many grey areas for
possession of antique weapons, such as whether a certificate is required. A lot of it is not set out in the legislation. The rules are only very gradually and slowly developed by way of case law, setting precedents, so although the rules are there, they are quite difficult to find, and different police forces take different approaches. “I think a lot of people who work in
this field would say it could probably do with a root-and-branch review – not necessarily in terms of radically changing things, but creating one new Act which will update everything and clearly define all the things that at the moment are open to interpretation because of the lack of clarity,” said Ms Saunsbury. Recently, she represented a collector
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who was charged with unlawfully possessing a shotgun. It dated from 1855-75, and he had no ammunition, and there was no evidence of any criminal intent, but at some point the barrel had been cut down and as a result it was now
classified as a prohibited firearm. The collector was charged – with the prospect of a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison – but before it came to court the CPS “accepted there was not a realistic prospect of a conviction”. In another recent case, a retired man in
his 60s was charged with two counts of possessing a firearm without a certificate – both shotguns between 87 and 107 years old. He had inherited them from his father more than 20 years ago. The case was dropped by the Crown three weeks before trial after “persistent representations” by Ms Saunsbury’s colleague Tony Meisels, “who relied on the statutory defence afforded by section 58(2) of the Firearms Act 1968 which provides an exemption if the weapon is an antique and is possessed as a curiosity or ornament”. “It is quite difficult to convince the
CPS,” said Ms Saunsbury. “A lot of these cases do actually go to trial and get won by calling an independent firearms expert on behalf of the defence to give a different opinion to the prosecution firearms expert.”
Precious metals
On Friday, June 22, Michael Bloomstein of Brighton were paying the following for bulk scrap against a gold fix of $1571.50 (€1251.79, £1005.69)
GOLD 22 carat – £862.93 per oz (£27.75 per gram) 18 carat – £706.03 (£22.70) 15 carat – £588.36 (£18.92) 14 carat – £549.14 (£17.66) 9 carat – £353.02 (£11.35)
HALLMARK PLATINUM £24.70 per gram
SILVER £14.13 per oz for 925 standard hallmarked
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