Dealer in 'illegal export' arrest

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Customs officers in London have arrested an art dealer in connection with the suspected illegal export of paintings worth more than £17m.

The paintings were shipped abroad after alleged "false information" was given about them.

One of the artworks, Portrait Of An Artist by Michiel van Musscher, had been valued at £6.6m.

It is understood the painting is now in the possession of a private collector in Europe.

Officers also searched addresses in connection with their investigation.

The dealer, who is British, has not been named.

It is believed that a number of paintings were granted export licences after "incomplete or false information" was given about their value and terms of sale, said a spokeswoman for HM Revenue and Customs.

Export controls

Euan Stewart, director of operations at HMRC, said: "Certain export controls are put in place to protect our country's cultural heritage.

"We take any attempt to get around the rules by unlawfully obtaining export licences very seriously."

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport last year placed a temporary export ban on Portrait of an Artist, which is considered Van Musscher's most exceptional painting.

The order followed a recommendation by a Museums, Libraries and Archives Council committee to allow a last chance to raise enough money to keep the painting in the UK.

But the ban expired later in the year after the painting failed to attract a buyer.

Portrait of an Artist shows a young artist mixing paints on a palette with drawings of ships on the floor in front of him.

The committee described the work at the time as "of outstanding aesthetic importance and of outstanding significance for the study of Dutch art and painting techniques".