Features - Page 174

The auction house, Christie’s, rejected calls to halt a sale of Nigerian artefacts which were looted by British troops in the 19th century.

UK house prices have seen their first year-on-year fall in eight years with a 0.1 per cent decrease on last June.

The health service ombudsman has said that the government must set out plans for an inquiry into the way it has handled the coronavirus pandemic.

There's no doubt that now, more than ever, companies need to be on the lookout for promising new business opportunities.

It may finally be possible to see the Mona Lisa without an abundance of selfie sticks in the way. On 6 July, Musée du Louvre in Paris is to reopen, following a 16-week closure, which has cost some €40 million.

In an interview with The Lawyer magazine for their upcoming July/August edition, Augusta Ventures MD Louis Young has discussed the "past, present and future" of third-party funding in the litigation sector.

A rise in coronavirus cases has resulted in the first full local lockdown in the UK.

It has been announced that Broadway shows will not return to the stage this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has announced that pubs, restaurants and other public venues in Leicester may be shut for another two weeks past the national "reopening" date of July 4.

A parliamentary report has stated that the Gambling Commission and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport have an "unacceptably weak understanding" of how gambling can harm people.

Giles Watling has toured the country for some 55 years. In a previous life, Watling was an actor, though he is now more accustomed to the theatrics of parliament as the MP for Clacton, a role he secured in 2017.

When establishing whether or not to reopen the Wallace Collection, Xavier Bray considered the view of the founder. He notes: “I think Wallace’s first thought would have been to reopen as soon as it was possible and safe to do so. In fact, pretty much since the start of the lockdown, we’ve been preparing how to reopen.”

Sir Mark Sedwill, the country’s top civil servant, has announced that he will step down from his role in September.

Patrick Rampton is a business leader who has seen it all. Currently a company director at Rampton Baseley, a leading independent sales and lettings agency operating in the Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth property markets within London, Rampton has seen the company through the challenges brought about by the financial crash of the late 2000s and more recently has been steering his firm through the Covid-19 pandemic. In conversation with the Leaders Council of Great Britain & Northern Ireland’s communications director, Scott Challinor, Rampton discusses his experience of managing the two crises and elaborates on what he has learned from such testing times and his hopes for the future.