Art

OPINION | A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Loopholes

Estimated at $67.4 billion worldwide in 2018, the legitimate art market is enormous, highly liquid and largely deregulated. As a consequence, it has become a primary target for money laundering and forgeries due to its loose regulations, exclusive nature and the lack of art market expertise in most law enforcement agencies around the world. To put this into perspective,  this article will look at the following key issues: market size and regulation, Europe’s lack of an anti-money laundering strategy, difference between the laws and capabilities of EU member states, difference between EU and US strategies, freeports and law enforcement.