the buyer was allowed to be kept unknown for some time. Speculation on the purchaser before he was identified had included Russian oligarchs. • In 2022, Christie's sold Andy Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe, “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn,” for $195 million, setting a new record. The purchaser was an art dealer, but the eventual owner is unknown. • Picasso's “Green Leaves, Nude and Bust,” which for two years was the world's top-priced work at auction after Christie's sold it for $106.5 million, is currently on display at London's Tate Modern, where its owner is still not identified. The anonymity afforded to purchasers and sellers of high-end collectibles, along with the large sums for which art and antiquities can change hands, have proven to be enticing to money launderers and kleptocrats. Recent Study Outlines How Art is Used for Money Laundering Congress attempted to address loopholes that might promote antiquities and art money laundering by passing the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA). In a proposed rule issued by FinCEN in September 2021, antiquities dealers would be brought under the same AML regulatory framework previously applied to U.S. financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Industry leaders expect the final rule to be published in the near future. AMLA also mandated that the Treasury Department study the EDVARD MUNCH “THE SCREAM” | PHOTO STOCK.ADOBE.COM high-end art industry to determine the degree of money laundering and terror financing risk associated with art dealers. This study determined that money laundering does occur through the sale and purchase of high-end art. It noted the following three ways criminals are using art to launder money: 1. Accepting art as payment to integrate illicitly generated or acquired funds into the financial system; 2. Hiding or parking the proceeds of illegal activities via art purchases; and 3. Using art purchased with illicit proceeds as collateral for other transactions to disguise the source of funds. Despite these findings, Treasury concluded that the risk of money laundering via art was not significant enough for art dealers to be brought under the www.coloradobankers.org 22
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