6 December: Academic Workshop: Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Terrorism Financing and the Art Market

MACCH affiliated researchers Donna Yates and Christoph Rausch collaborate with Marieke de Goede and Maja Dehouck to organize an academic workshop at the University of Amsterdam. The workshop takes place in the context of Marieke de Goede’s ERC Consolidator Grant project “FOLLOW: Following the Money from Transaction to Trial” and explores emerging conceptual and methodological approaches to the interdisciplinary study of AML/CFT regulation and the art market.

In January 2020, the Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) took effect in the EU Member States. This new directive formally requires art market actors to participate in AML/CFT-activities. Similar to financial institutions, which have been subject to these types of regulations ever since 9/11, galleries, auction houses, and other art businesses must now conduct due diligence checks on customers and report any suspicious activity to Financial Intelligence Units (FIU). Just like bankers, accountants and lawyers, art market professionals are asked to serve as ‘gatekeepers’ in the European response to terrorism financing and money laundering.

This development delineates a new field of research. For instance, it expands the empirical scope of (computerized) surveillance and security studies, and it is apt to focus renewed criminological attention to white collar crimes “through” art. Moreover, it points to the potential of art market studies to generate insights into the globalization of contested legal practices of ownership and wealth management, financial speculation and risk taking, as well as regulation and taxation.

The workshop provides a space to explore emerging conceptual and methodological approaches to the interdisciplinary study of AML/CFT regulation and the art market. Two panels are planned. The first panel discusses theoretical approaches to studying relevant AML/CFT practices from the social sciences. It addresses firstly what surveillance and security studies may contribute to the conversation, and secondly, how the study of money laundering and terrorism financing through art market activities relates to established art crime research. The presentations are intended to foster a debate about how best to open this emerging field conceptually. The second panel addresses the methodological (and ethical) issues of access in studying money laundering and terrorism financing in the context of the art market. Researching AML/CFT practices is notoriously difficult because they are at the nexus of secretive criminal domains. Speakers from various disciplinary backgrounds share their relevant experiences of conducting research into and dealing with the challenges of secrecy.

The workshop takes place on Roeterseilandcampus in Amsterdam. If you want to participate, please contact the organizers.

For more information: http://www.projectfollow.org/