The UK tv personalities Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly—identified collectively as Ant and Dec—have gained a courtroom order to hint transaction particulars of artworks they personal, after an middleman took “secret and unauthorised earnings” from the gross sales, they declare.
A UK Excessive Courtroom choose dominated on 4 March that there’s an “controversial case” for the courtroom order, which was filed by McPartlin and Donnelly in August 2025. It centres on a relationship between the duo and an unidentified artwork guide, solely referred to within the submitting as ‘X’. The nameless get together dealt with the pair’s buy of six Banksy prints for a mixed £550,000 from the artwork supplier, Andrew Lilley [of Lilley Fine Art ltd]. Nevertheless Lilley allegedly obtained solely £300,000 for the works.
McPartlin and Donnelly are searching for clarification over this £250,000 discrepancy and have expressed concern that “secret and unauthorised earnings” could have been taken inside the chain of transaction. Lilley will now be compelled to divulge to disclose particulars of his buying and selling with the unnamed middleman. The courtroom heard that earlier requests for these particulars had been refused, on the premise of confidentiality. The declare doesn’t accuse Lilley or his firm of wrongdoing.
The courtroom heard that the guide had been appointed on an agreed 10% fee and that the working relationship led to September 2021.
The duo additionally declare they obtained £11,000 for his or her sale of considered one of Banksy’s Napalm prints, through the middleman, which they now consider bought for £13,000. Data concerning 22 gross sales are being sought.
Lilley instructed the BBC that the dispute is finally “a matter for the courts now and between A&D [Ant and Dec] and the third get together [X]”.
Choose Iain Pester ordered the data to be handed over on 4 March, following a listening to the day earlier than. Representatives for all events had not responded to The Artwork Newspaper’s request for remark by the point of publication.
McPartlin and Donnelly’s case focuses on acquiring info through the Norwich Pharmacal Orders [NPOs], a court-order which requires a respondent to reveal paperwork or info to the applicant.
In a 2020 case (Hickox v Dickinson), an NPO was granted, requiring the artwork supplier Simon Dickinson, who had acted as agent within the sale of a Paul Signac portray, to reveal the id of the purchaser and different details about the transaction.
“Norwich Pharmacal Orders are used as an ordinary instrument for acquiring disclosure that we incessantly deploy or think about in related circumstances,” says Amanda Grey, a accomplice at Mishcon de Reya. “The curiosity right here is little doubt as a result of events concerned. The courtroom will take sure elements into consideration prematurely of granting an NPO, as has been reported right here.”
