No Secrets about Money Laundering

By David Honig, Esq.

Aside from drugs, art is the largest unregulated market in the world.

~ The Mona Lisa Curse

Why does it seem like most notorious drug dealers and dictators have vast collections of art? Part of the reason is that most people love art and it happens to be easy to hide. Even though people's interests and tastes may differ, the desire to collect or at the very least view art is consistent among large segments of the population. Read our recent review of "Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present."

There is however, a more sinister incentive to “collect” valuable art. Art, especially paintings on canvas by a select group of artists, is easier to move and store than other assets of similar value, such as precious metals or cash. Patricia Cohen, Valuable as Art but Priceless as Tool to Launder Money, N.Y. Times, (May 12, 2013), at A.1. As a moveable commodity, for example, if rebel forces are raiding a dictator's palatial compound it would be very easy to pull a painting off the wall, remove it from its frame and escape with an asset worth millions of dollars.