Why Art Is a Prime Target for Organised Crime
- camilarosiaz
- Jan 6
- 3 min read
In 2024, the global art market hit an estimated $57.5 billion (€49.5 billion) in sales, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2025, underscoring art’s significance as an asset class. Art is traditionally associated with noble motivations and heritage. However, the art market, with its high value per unit transactions, subjective and/or manipulated valuations, and relative opacity, can be exploited as a tool for criminal investment and money laundering, particularly through the purchase and resale of artworks to legitimise illicit funds.
The sale of a work of art can become the start of a money-laundering operation. Iryna Imago/Shutterstock
Experts have estimated that between 2% and 5% of global GDP is laundered annually. While money laundering through art is just one method among many, the art industry stands out for its lack of transparency and subjective valuation mechanisms, which are often tied to speculation. This makes it one of the least regulated markets in terms of efforts to curb money-laundering. In fact, after drugs and arms trafficking, the trade in artworks ranks as the most lucrative source of funding for illegal activities.
The sale of a work of art can become the start of a money-laundering operation. In 2007, a striking example occurred involving a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The artwork passed through customs with an invoice declaring its value at just $100 (€82), despite its actual worth being $8 million (€6.8 million). Behind this transaction was a money-laundering scheme orchestrated by a former Brazilian banker. This case reveals how the art market, by its very nature, can find itself at the heart of illicit activities.
Money laundering is the process of disguising the origins of illegally obtained funds to make them appear legitimate. The goal is simple: turn “dirty money”, which can’t be used openly, into “clean money” that blends seamlessly into the legal economy. In the art world, criminal organisations exploit well-established tactics.
Art serves two key roles in criminal schemes. First, it acts as a direct source of illicit income through the production of counterfeit works or the sale of stolen pieces. Second, it functions as a tool for laundering money: authentic artworks are bought and resold to clean illicit funds.
The money-laundering process unfolds in three stages: investment, layering, and integration. Investment involves converting dirty cash into funds deposited in bank accounts. Layering is about moving the invested money through multiple accounts to obscure its trail. Finally, integration means reinvesting the laundered money into legal assets, often through shell companies, to complete the cycle.
In many ways, the art market is vulnerable to criminal activity. These vulnerabilities are particularly pronounced in areas where opacity and anonymity are common, such as private sales at auction houses, digital transactions involving cryptocurrency payments, and the use of free ports for storage and transfer.
The regulatory environment governing the art market has recently evolved toward more stringent standards. In the European Union, the sixth anti-money laundering directive expanded anti-money laundering requirements to include art market professionals. In the US, the proposed Art Market Integrity Act aims to impose specific obligations on the art sector concerning anti-money laundering and reporting of suspicious activities.
Due to its complexity and opacity, the art market is a fertile ground for money-laundering activities. While recent regulatory advances mark significant progress, they remain insufficient to overcome the weaknesses in the art value chain: lack of transparency, corruption, and regulatory gaps in free ports. We hope that the importance of art will encourage public authorities to strengthen their means of action, while establishing a genuine culture of transparency and accountability.