Art Market & Anti-Money Laundering Regulations in 2024

Join the Center for Art Law as we discuss what changes are under consideration in the UK to the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) and how these changes may affect business – for instance a potential change of the definition of ‘art’. You will also be reminded of the changes that occurred in 2023, in case you missed them.

We also expect to have further news on how the UK MLRs will apply to Non-UK AMPs who trade in the UK, such as the US, Swiss and Asian art market participants. Although the US fine art market is not (yet) regulated for AML, in 2020, the US included the US antiquities market within the scope of the US ML-regulated sector. We understand that 2024 is the year we will see the specific proposed regulations for the trade in antiquities.

In addition, given the unfortunate events in both the Ukraine and Gaza, we will highlight the changes the sanctions landscape and how these additional sanctions may affect the art market.

Finally, we will share the very latest insights we have gained about HMRC interventions of art market participants – activity that promises to only increase in 2024.

About the Hosts and Speakers:

Rena Neville

Rena is a qualified lawyer and art market AML specialist. She enjoyed a 30-year career at Sotheby’s becoming their first Global Compliance Director, having previously served as their European General Counsel and Global Head of Litigation. She benefits from a unique combination of art world and international legal experience. Leading the FCS Compliance Art Division, Rena assists many Art Market Practitioners providing them with the practical information and tools they need to ensure they and their firms are meeting the legal AML compliance obligations.

Paula Trommel

Paula’s particular strengths lie in her art market and regulatory experience. While at the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK Regulator, she was responsible for the investigation of financial crime cases, including money laundering, putting her regulatory knowledge to use. She has extensive international experience in designing and implementing compliance and anti-money laundering programmes and has worked with the Fine Art Group as well as Christie’s legal and compliance departments.

Irina Tarsis, Esq.

Irina is an art historian and a practicing attorney admitted to the bar in New York State. She earned her Masters Degree in Art History from Harvard University and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (NY). Ms. Tarsis launched the Center for Art Law as a blog in 2008/2009. Under her leadership, the Center was incorporated as a stand-alone non-profit organization in December 2017. Ms. Tarsis has served on the faculty of the Teachers College/Columbia University (2020), Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (2012, 2017-2018) and the European Shoah Legacy Institute/Provenance Research Training Workshops in Vilnius, Lithuania (2013), Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy (2014). Her publications include articles in the IFAR Journal, Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal, Cultural Heritage & Arts Review, Library and The Cultural Record, the ArtWatch UK Journal and the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law.

Andrew Adams

Andrew Adams, a New York partner, advises companies and individuals in the areas of government and internal investigations, corporate governance, and white collar and regulatory matters. His practice includes a particular focus on anti-money laundering compliance, U.S. economic countermeasures and national security crisis response, drawing on Andrew’s time as the inaugural Director of the Department of Justice’s Task Force KleptoCapture, a multi-agency response group focused on the economic sanctions and export controls imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Andrew has investigated, charged, and tried cases with an emphasis on the integrity of financial institutions; transnational organized crime; sophisticated money laundering operations through both traditional and “crypto” platforms; sport integrity, including the first criminal case charged on the basis of the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act; and cases involving looted antiquities and frauds involving the sale of cultural property.

Prior to joining Steptoe, in addition to serving as Director of the Department of Justice’s Task Force KleptoCapture, Andrew C. Adams was the acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, with oversight of the Division’s sanctions, export control, and national security cyber investigations. Prior to these roles, Adams joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and served as lead prosecutor on several prominent money laundering and racketeering cases. He also became co-chief of that Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit, leading a team of prosecutors engaged at the nexus of sophisticated transnational crime and opaque financial networks, and served as one of the District’s asset forfeiture coordinators, advising Assistant U.S. Attorneys across the Office on civil and criminal forfeiture matters.

Before his work for the Department of Justice, Andrew worked as a litigation associate in an international law firm headquartered in New York.