New Obligations in the Art & Antiquities Markets: What All Art Appraisers, Art Advisors, Family Offices and Other Art Market Participants Need to Know About the Latest Developments Impacting the Art World
The RAM New York Committee was pleased to host a webinar on November 16, 2021.
Over the last 18 months or so, a lot has happened! In addition to the worldwide COVID pandemic, there has been significant movement towards regulating the art and antiquities markets in several jurisdictions around the world. What does this mean for art appraisers, art advisors, family offices, collectors, dealers and other art market participants?
As the art and antiquities markets are re-emerging from pandemic-related shut downs, and we are once again able to visit art fairs and galleries in person, art market participants must reevaluate whether their existing safeguards against fraud, money-laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit financial activities are still appropriate. Have the long periods of imposed separation had an impact on how business is done in the art and antiquities markets? What is different now? Have the months of virtual communications changed expectations regarding the provenance, title, authenticity or physical condition of an artwork? Have ethics and compliance requirements increased or decreased?
In addition to changes occasioned by the pandemic, there are now a number of countries in which the art market is specifically subject to anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations similar to those governing banks. The EU and the UK, in particular, have made great strides in promoting AML regulations geared towards the art and antiquities markets. Even in the U.S., federal regulations are being drafted (due in late December 2021) to make “dealers in antiquities” subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, and the U.S. Treasury Department is exploring whether the same treatment should apply to art dealers and other art market participants. Meanwhile, the so-called “Pandora Papers” (publically disclosed on October 3, 2021) have uncovered some links between certain offshore accounts and smuggled antiquities. And federal lawmakers – inspired by the Pandora Papers – have introduced a bill titled “ENABLERS Act”, which would require art dealers, lawyers, accountants and others to engage in some form of due diligence to ensure that their clients are not paying with or trying to move around money of suspicious origin.
A panel of art market experts and attorneys surveyed the latest developments affecting the art and antiquities markets. In addition to discussing the developing legal landscape, the panelists proposed some best practices on how art market participants can successfully manage changed expectations and new day-to-day obligations.
Find the program here.