New PhD-Project on Recent European Measures and Their Impact on the Art Market

After the destruction and looting of cultural property by IS, fears arose that the art market was used for terrorism financing. Moreover, there were pre-existing concerns of illicit sale of cultural goods and money laundering. In response, the EU adopted Regulation 2019/880 and updated its Anti-Money Laundering Scheme. However, key figures in the art market, enforcement agencies, and academia raised doubt whether these instruments fulfil their declared aims. Anna de Jong’s PhD project will seek to answer whether these doubts are fair and accurate.

This research project will assess both the adopted Regulation 2019/880 on the import of cultural goods, and Directive 2018/843 updating the existing anti-money laundering framework, as well as the surrounding legal framework in view of their objectives of combating 1) illicit trade of cultural goods and destruction of cultural heritage, and 2) creating a conclusive framework to prevent money laundering through the art market. It will provide a critical overview of the current European and international framework and examine its national implementation and how it will affect stakeholders, ranging from private actors to enforcement agencies, through dogmatic and empirical legal research. Finally, conclusions will be drawn whether the European measures reach their goals of providing increased protection of cultural heritage and creating a more transparent and trustworthy art market.

For more information on the research project, please do feel free to reach out to anna.dejong@maastrichtuniversity.nl.