The UK tv personalities Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly—recognized collectively as Ant and Dec—have received a courtroom order to hint transaction particulars of artworks they personal, after an middleman took “secret and unauthorised income” from the gross sales, they declare.
A UK Excessive Court docket decide dominated on 4 March that there’s an “debatable 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 advisor, solely referred to within the submitting as ‘X’. The nameless occasion 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]. Nonetheless Lilley allegedly acquired 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 income” might have been taken inside the chain of transaction. Lilley will now be pressured to disclose 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 advisor had been appointed on an agreed 10% fee and that the working relationship led to September 2021.
The duo additionally declare they acquired £11,000 for his or her sale of considered one of Banksy’s Napalm prints, through the middleman, which they now consider offered for £13,000. Info relating to 22 gross sales are being sought.
Lilley advised the BBC that the dispute is finally “a matter for the courts now and between A&D [Ant and Dec] and the third occasion [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 data through the Norwich Pharmacal Orders [NPOs], a court-order which requires a respondent to reveal paperwork or data 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 a typical instrument for acquiring disclosure that we regularly deploy or take into account in related circumstances,” says Amanda Grey, a accomplice at Mishcon de Reya. “The curiosity right here is little doubt because of the events concerned. The courtroom will take sure elements into consideration upfront of granting an NPO, as has been reported right here.”
