Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) have introduced the Art Market Integrity Act (AMIA) in Congress.
Announced on July 23, 2025, the AMIA would require art dealers, galleries, auction houses, and related entities, among other things, to create, implement, and operate anti-money laundering (AML) programs. These AML programs would include recordkeeping, reporting, performing customer due diligence, conducting training, appointing an AML officer, and independently testing the AML controls – requirements that have long applied to banks, broker-dealers, and other financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The Act also would fill a gap created by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA), which amended the US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to include antiquities dealers, but not art dealers or auction houses.
What is the Art Market Integrity Act?
The US art market, estimated at $25 billion annually, has historically operated outside the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA’s) reach. A 2022 study by the US Treasury Department of the facilitation of money laundering and terrorist financing through the art trade concluded that the art market, while not the highest area of risk, was susceptible to abuse. Later, in its February 2024 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment, the Treasury noted that high-value goods, including art, were increasingly used as investment or financial assets, making such goods vulnerable to money laundering to obscure ownership and move value across borders. Moreover, recent enforcement actions and Senate investigations have underscored the use of art to facilitate sanctions evasion and terrorist financing. Hezbollah financier Nazem Ahmad allegedly evaded sanctions through the purchase of over $1.2 million in art from US persons within and outside the US. Additionally, a July 2020 report from the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, focused on the use of high-value art as a tool to evade sanctions. Specifically, the report highlighted sanctioned Russian businessmen Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who, through shell companies and relationships with art dealers and auction houses, exploited the art industry’s long-time focus on confidentiality and discretion to launder funds and evade sanctions by transacting millions of dollars’ worth of high-value art.
In introducing the AMIA, the sponsors of the bill seek to close this gap by amending the BSA to include “a person engaged in the trade in works of art,” including dealers, galleries, advisors, consultants, custodians, auction houses, and museums, within the BSA’s definition of “financial institution.” (See 31 U.S.C. § 5312(a)(2) for the current definition.) The bill carves out limited exemptions for persons who have not engaged in a single art transaction above $10,000 or less than $50,000 in total art transactions in the prior year, as well as for those selling only self-created works.
Alignment with EU and UK regulation of money laundering risk in the arts
In addition to closing the perceived regulatory gap in the US between antiquities dealers and art dealers, the AMIA would help mitigate cross-border regulatory arbitrage in the market for high-value art between the US and the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK). Specifically, the AMIA would mirror regulatory frameworks already in place in the United UK and EU. The UK’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 imposed due diligence requirements on “art market participants” for transactions or series of linked transactions valued at €10,000 or more in 2017. Since 2018, the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive extended its anti-money laundering (AML) regulations to include “persons trading or acting as intermediaries in the trade of works of art, including when this is carried out by art galleries and auction houses” for transactions or series of linked transactions valued at €10,000 or more. More recently, another EU Regulation (Regulation 2019/880) went into effect in June that imposes heightened diligence requirements on antiquities market participants importing artifacts more than 200 years old that originate outside the EU.
Potential impact on art market professionals
If passed, the AMIA will bring art market professionals into the BSA framework by:
- Imposing recordkeeping and reporting obligations: The AMIA would require art market entities to maintain detailed records, file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and implement customer identification programs.
- Mandating robust AML/countering the financing of terrorism programs: The Act would require the same four-pillar AML and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) program obligations – creating internal controls, appointing a compliance officer, training, and independent testing – that apply to other covered financial institutions.
- Establishing regulatory oversight: The Act would direct the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to develop an examination and enforcement regime tailored to the art market.
In short, if the bill is passed, it will require art market professionals to establish robust AML/CFT controls and impose significant reporting and recordkeeping obligations on entities and professionals in the art market, which may have a disparate impact on smaller businesses involved in the art industry.
While the AMIA has bipartisan support, it will still need to pass both houses of Congress before it can be signed into law. Transparency International US – a nonprofit organization working to advance transparency and accountability involving AML and anti-corruption – has issued a statement in support of the AMIA, but a similar piece of legislation introduced in the 115th Congress (H.R.5886 – To apply the Bank Secrecy Act to dealers in art or antiquities) faced opposition from art market participants and ultimately did not advance out of committee. The world and the art market have changed since then, though, and art market professionals operating in the US may consider engaging with congressional representatives to inform those individuals about unique business challenges, particularly as they relate to smaller art market participants. If the bill appears to gain momentum, art market professionals may also consider taking proactive steps now to assess their level of sophistication when it comes to counterparty due diligence and otherwise prepare for the potential regulatory shift.
Our team will continue to closely monitor the progress of AMIA through Congress and will provide updates on significant developments as needed.
[View source.]
