Law

A man has pleaded guilty to laundering around £868,000 from Leicester Curve, stolen by his wife, who worked at the theatre.

The Leicester Mercury reports that Karen McGowan, 50, siphoned off the money over a period of 15 months.

McGowan worked in the venue's finance department for five years when in April 2019 her fraud was discovered and she was sacked.

Prosecutor Andrew Peet said that Mrs McGowan was addicted to gambling and would put the money into the account of her husband, Graham McGowan, 57, before transferring it to her own.

She has also pleaded guilty to money laundering and two counts of fraud.

The couple are due to be sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on a later date.

A new guide is hoping to clarify issues around copyright and collaboration agreements when working on devised and collaborative theatre projects.

Created by the writers' union, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), Devised and collaborative theatre - a guide is available to download for free.

The 17-page guide covers a range of issues that can arise when working on projects with multiple writers – or even, in some cases, no clearly defined writer at all.

The areas covered include who counts as a writer; copyright, fees, royalties and definining percentage contributions; the importance of collaboration agreements; joint authorship and co-authorship; and what to do when a collaboration breaks down.

Writer, deviser, director and producer Jenifer Toksvig led the development of the guidelines. She said: "I’m very excited about this addition to the Guild’s amazing and comprehensive guidelines.

"Devised and collaboratively-made work is such a huge and magical area of theatre, and these guidelines will support and protect the writers and performers working in a collective space."

The new guide will be discussed at a free Edinburgh Festival Fringe event on Saturday 24 August. Writers who wish to attend can register here.

A museum in Switzerland will take down five paintings suspected of being looted by Nazis after new international guidelines were laid out earlier this year to aid restitution of art that was previously stolen or forcibly sold. 

Kunsthaus Zurich Museum said the paintings - by Monet, Courbet, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Gauguin - will be removed from display while an investigation is conducted.

The works form part of the Emil Bührle Collection, which has previously been the subject of provenance questions. 

Bührle was an arms dealer who sold weapons to the Nazis in World War Two. When he died in 1956, he had built a collection of some 600 artworks, many of which are on display at the Kunsthaus as part of a 20-year loan.

Switzerland is one of more than 20 countries that signed up to the US State Department’s Best Practices for Restitution of Nazi-Confiscated Art in March. 

Stuart Eizenstat, the US secretary of State's special advisor on Holocaust issues, said the guidance sought to address "over 100,000 of the 600,000 paintings and many more of the millions of books, manuscripts, ritual religious items and other cultural objects stolen that have never been returned".

Under existing Swiss law, descendants seeking to recover artworks from the Bührle collection have no legal claims for restitution or compensation due to statutes of limitations.

The Emil Buhrle Collection board said it is "committed to seeking a fair and equitable solution for these works with the legal successors of the former owners, following best practices".

The FBI is investigating the whereabouts of hundreds of artefacts missing from the British Museum.

Some of the missing ancient gems, jewellery and other items have been traced to the USA. A buyer in New Orleans, who is no longer in possession of any items, told the BBC the FBI had been in contact asking for information about two pieces he bought on eBay.

The British Museum says that of 1,500 items estimated to have been stolen or missing, more than 600 have been bought back and a further 100 have been located. According to the BBC’s report, the US law enforcement agency has assisted in returning 268 items that were sold to a collector in Washington DC.

Senior curator Peter Higgs, has been accused by the museum of stealing, damaging and selling ancient artefacts. A court case is currently ongoing. Higgs, who has been dismissed from his role at the museum, denies the allegations.

The BBC’s latest investigation suggests artefacts could have also been sold in other countries. Danish antiquities dealer Ittai Gradel, who first alerted the museum to thefts, has tracked down artefacts that were sold to buyers in Hamburg, Cologne, Paris and Hong Kong.

Two women in their 80s have been charged with criminal damage after the glass around the Magna Carta at the British Library was attacked, the Metropolitan Police have said.

The Guardian reports that the Rev Sue Parfitt, 82, from Bristol, and Judith Bruce, 85, from Swansea, were arrested last Friday morning (10 May).

The British Library said its security team intervened to prevent further damage to the case, and the “Magna Carta itself remains undamaged”.

The gallery housing the display is closed until further notice, it added.

The two women have been released on bail and are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 20 June.