You can download the Comparative Study HERE.

DISCLAIMER

This resource is intended to be for educational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice. Should readers require advice on relevant Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, they should consult an attorney in the appropriate jurisdiction. Please note that regulations are subject to updates and change.

INTRODUCTION

Three years ago, in 2020, Center for Art Law commenced the task of compiling an AML Comparative Law survey, in an effort that to merges the expertise of art law professionals and experiences of other art market participants after the legal landscape of AML in the trade of arts and antiquities had been substantially amended by the 5th AML Directive. Ambitious to deliver a comprehensive guide and faced with the hardships of a global pandemic, the idea has been progressing less swiftly than we had originally envisioned. With this preamble, we are pleased to share with you our 2023 version (public and updated) of the AML regulations by jurisdiction and the art market survey.

Who Contributed to this Study

We identified and contacted dozens of attorneys and hundreds of art dealers from various European jurisdictions, as well as UK and US. From legal experts, using a standardized set of questions, we collected data on the legal acts where the AML rules are contained in their respective jurisdictions. The responses are intended to explain obligations imposed on art market entities and explain duties of monitoring and reporting suspicious activities.  Our goal was to collect and share the specific requirements and sanctioning mechanisms as well as exceptions for the jurisdictions thus treated.

Although it has been some time since the AML provisions were supplemented to incorporate art market specifically, the field of arts and antiquities has been an ever growing concern for administrative bodies. The geopolitical circumstances and technological advancements present themselves susceptible to being utilized for the purposes of money laundering. For that reason we incorporated the growing sector of digitized assets.

We recognize and appreciate that art dealers play a vital role in safeguarding the trade and enforcing anti-money laundering legislation in the art industry. As intermediaries between artists, collectors and consumers, they have a responsibility to remain transparent and honest in their dealings. By complying with AML guidelines, art dealers diligently verify the identities of their clients; conduct due diligence on artwork provenance and keep accurate records of transactions. By cooperating with law enforcement agencies and adopting best practices, art dealers actively support global efforts to preserve the integrity of the art market and ensure both artists and collectors will have a fair and ethical environment. We conducted a survey among art dealers in the EU and the United States, gathering information on their previous experience dealing with anti-money laundering requirements in order to gain a better understanding of how not just solicitors, but also dealers, are involved in AML legislation. As expected, too few dealers responded to questions presented.

Again, we thank our contributors for their patience and generosity, for investing their time and willingness to share their knowledge to supplement the world of art law with a valuable source of information. We believe that their insightful and comprehensive answers will result in a more informed and transparent art market environment.

THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEER ATTORNEYS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS RESOURCE:

• (Austria) Dr. Peter M. Polak, Polak & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH, Vienna
• (Belgium) Oliver Lenaerts, Contour Law, Brussels
• (Bulgaria) Dilyana Bozhkova, Deloitte Bulgaria, Sofia
• (Croatia) Jakov Mamic, MAMIC GRGIC VINTER attorneys at law LLC, Zagreb
• (Germany) Dr. Katharina Garbers-von Boehm, Büsing Müffelmann & Theye , Berlin/Munich
• (Greece) Stelios Gregoriou, Gregoriou Law Firm, Athens
• (Italy) Federica Minio, Morri Rossetti Milan
• (Luxembourg) Catherine Cathiard Cathiard-Avocat, Paris
• (Netherlands) Laurens Kasteleijn, Art Law Services, Amsterdam
• (Poland) Filip Radzikowski, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
• (Romania) Dr. Mihaela Mocanu, CMVLaw practice, Bucharest
• (Spain) Gunna Freivalde, AMG Attorneys S.L., Madrid
• (UK) Rakhi Talwar, RTalwar Compliance, London
• (US) Megan Noh, Pryor Cashman LLP, New York and Nicholas O’Donnell, Sullivan & Worcester LLP,

The Center is delighted to invite you to discover our results. We have covered a limited scope of jurisdictions, however, the international nature of both art and money laundering calls for a survey that would go beyond the EU, UK and US. We hope therefore to build upon this survey in the future and to provide our readers with a comprehensive survey that would break down the AML practices worldwide.

You can download the Comparative Study HERE.

Special thanks to Rinnah Anosike, Poppy Kemp, Irina Strelkovskaya, Filip Radzikowski, Esther Neville, Angel Mai, Caitlin O’Hare and everyone else at the Center for giving attention to this topic.

In kind contributions for this project have been made by Amurabi (Marie Potel-Saville | Paris, FR) and J Group (Anna Brouver | Zurich, CH) and many other friends and advisors to the Center for Art Law.

nB:  There are a number of jurisdictions that we have not yet been able to include in our report. Therefore, we ask that attorneys working in the missing jurisdictions please reach out to us with their valuable insight to assist us with our report and ensure it is as informative as possible.

We are missing data from the following jurisdictions: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Sweden, Slovakia and Slovenia. If you know of an attorney that may be able to help, please nominate them and we will ask for their assistance. We expect to treat these jurisdictions in subsequent revisions of the report.