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The Fight to Save Ratty's Riverbank on the River Pang.

A fundraising mission has been launched to save the real-life riverside home of Ratty, Mole and the other Wind in the Willows characters. Conservationists want to use the land - which prompted author Kenneth Grahame to write his masterpiece - as a wildlife refuge. The stretch of the River Pang (a tributory of the Thames) in Berkshire is being sold by Cemex, a giant aggregates firm, on 8 December 2006 for £235,000. The land is destined to be used for housing.....This beautiful landscape needs to be preserved forever and not just buried under yet another housing estate. Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust has got first refusal but lacks the cash. Now it has launched an appeal. Members have pledged £30,000 and a further £45,000 may be raised this way. The remaining £150,000 will be sought from charities - but the timescale is tight. If YOU value Kenneth Graham's characters and the habitat of the water vole (whose numbers have declined by over 80% in the past 20 years due to changes in riverbanks - their normal habitat) then you should contact the Berks Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust direct.....  Report by JB

Owner of a Broken Art

An art import boom means unscrupulous shippers can cost the art world millions.

 Contemporary art hasn't seen this kind of demand since the big shoulder pad days. But increased demand and a boom in art imports means more fledgling collectors are falling victim to amateur mistakes and losing millions. The 300-year-old Qing vases smashed by a stumbling visitor at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge were an unusual case of art damage. The scratches, tears, holes, snags, cracks and scars artworks endure every year usually happen when the artwork is on the move. Chaïm Soutine's violent Le Boeuf Ecorché was sold at Christie's for £7.8m, £3m over estimate and eight Munch pieces from the coveted Olsen Collection in Norway blew away estimates, going for almost £17m. Modern and contemporary works are hot and they're more vulnerable to damage devaluation than their older counterparts. Over 1.6m paintings were brought into Britain last year, nearly half a million more than in 2004 and nearly a million more than in 2000. Damage caused by costly mistakes in transporting art can end up costing the art world as much as £67m in 2006, according to Customs and Excise figures and an estimate by Mark Dalrymple, a specialist fine art loss adjuster at Tyler & Co.

Mark explains why contemporary art is more susceptible to extreme value loss if it's damaged: "A small hole punched in a contemporary painting worth a half a million could mean a £100,000 loss. Collectors and curators expect an Old Master painting to have been repaired or restored at some time during its life and minor damage may not be disastrous. But with contemporary art, people always pay a premium for pristine condition and slight damage could result in a total loss from an owner's point of view." There are no figures available for how many paintings or sculptures are maimed every year by tragic errors in judgment made by art shoppers around the world. Graham Enser, head of Cadogan Tate Fine Art, the specialist, international art transporter shipping Le Boeuf Ecorché, comments: "You'd be surprised at how many people will spend £20K to £50K on a painting and then trust it to an ordinary parcel or shipping company. It's not just some bubble-wrap and packing peanuts. Transporting massive paintings with glazing requires specialist craftsmen who are trained and equipped to handle delicate artworks. Countless works are damaged or destroyed every year because someone took their safety for granted. Protecting art throughout its journey requires specialised expertise. Ordinary parcel and shipping companies shouldn't be expected to do their homework before handling delicate artworks."

Graham continues: "Many contemporary sculptures and installations are made from a wide variety of non-traditional media. Materials like encaustic wax or the cigarette butts used by Sarah Lucas can be sensitive to moisture, vibration, temperature or all of the above. The art world as a whole suffers every time a new collector puts their trust in an ill-equipped or unspecialised transporting firm." Mark's art damage horror stories include a rare book collection worth around £50K shipped in a van that also contained a battery drill (its battery connected). A fire seriously damaged the books, the van and the drill. A more typical example is a huge glazed painting which was transported flat rather than upright. The glass collapsed shredding the canvas.

Cadogan Tate Fine Art works closely with interior designers, auction houses, collectors and dealers to provide a tailored and discrete service around the world's premier art markets in London, New York and Paris. Cadogan Tate's specialised craftsmen undergo rigorous background checks before gaining access to the precious cargo. Moving and storing over 100,000 works of art around the world every year, Cadogan Tate runs a seamless logistical chain ensures that both regular services to these destinations as well as more personalised storage and door-to-door collections and deliveries. With a fleet of 60 specialised trucks across Europe and the United States and over 30,000 square feet of climate controlled, bonded warehouse space - Cadogan Tate is poised to meet all the logistical needs for one unique masterpiece or an entire collection.

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