Money laundering typologies in the art market

In the first scheme, a work is bought at a price far above its value by an accomplice, the excess representing money to be laundered. The seller, who receives a high price, can then justify funds that appear lawful. In the second, the sale is purely fictitious: the work does not move, but a contract and a payment justify it.

The warning signs are a large gap from market prices, rapid resales to the same buyer or sales between related parties. Independent appraisal and comparison with the Observatory's price databases help to detect them.

Free ports make it possible to store works with suspension of duties, sometimes for years. Several sales can take place there without the work moving, which complicates tracking. Shell companies are used to hide the real beneficiary of a purchase or sale.

Splitting consists of dividing a payment into several settlements below the vigilance threshold. Operators must look at the sum of linked payments rather than each one in isolation.

The study of real cases is the best way to train teams. OIMAP publishes about ten anonymised teaching cases each year, with the course of the investigation and the lessons learned. They are used in the Academy's training and in the programmes of several universities.

Each case ends with a series of questions the operator can answer to test their own vigilance: which signal would I have spotted? At what point would I have asked questions?