Tackling tax fraud and money laundering has, as we previously reported, also affects the arts sector. Money can no longer be hidden in shadowy limited companies behind foundations, which in turn hide behind other companies and individuals. Everything must be transparent from now on.
Last week, a new measure was added, According to Artnet. The European Union is going to end the existence of so-called free ports. These are extremely secure warehouses where valuables, such as art, can be stored outside customs, so they do not have to pay taxes on them either. We address the official document a moment: it states that the European Parliament notes that:
'the end of banking secrecy has led to the rise of investment in new things, such as art, which has led to rapid growth of the art market in recent years; stresses that free zones provide them with a safe and overlooked storage space, where trade can be carried out untaxed and ownership can be concealed, while art itself remains an unregulated market, due in part to the difficulty of setting market prices and finding specialists; points out that it is easier, for example, to move a valuable painting to the other side of the world than a comparable amount of money.' (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)
So this decision directly links the growth of the art market to the lifting of banking secrecy. And so it is better to trudge from free port to free port with a lost Picasso than with a bag of money. Remarkable indeed, and pretty ok that those free ports are now closed. Back to bitcoin? Who knows. It might just lead to someone ever getting those Salvator Mundi, whether by Michelangelo or not, is going to be found.
Read the whole article at Artnet.
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