Art Auctions and Money Laundering

Despite the major auction houses implementing voluntary anti-money laundering programs it still may not be enough to prevent the true owners of artworks from shielding themselves behind these webs of corporate structures or relatives. There's not a huge legal requirement on auction houses to dig very deep to try and figure out who the ultimate beneficial owner of an artwork in. One attorney put it very accurately when he said it was not like Putin's banker is going to walk into an art gallery on Madison Avenue and buy a per capita painting.