How do people use the commercial art to launder money?
For context, I work in commercial galleries and it’s something I’m trying to understand to work in a safer way with collectors. Thanks!
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Let’s say I’m a criminal of some sort looking to launder my money. All I have to do is find someone who could credibly invest in art, slide them my dirty money under the table and then have them buy a piece of artwork from me. The art transaction is entirely above board, so now my formerly dirty money is ‘clean’ – it can be traced to that art transaction.
The reason you use art is that the value is highly subjective and involves easily transported goods of high value. You could do the same thing with lumber, but you’d need trainloads full of the stuff and governments would find it highly suspicious if you paid many times the commodity value for lumber.
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