Reported by Benjamin Sutton

(Excerpt shown below. To read full report, go to: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/07/25/anti-money-laundering-legislation-us-senate-proposal)

A bipartisan group of US Senators has introduced new legislation, dubbed the “Art Market Integrity Act”, which would require art market businesses operating in the US to comply with measures to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. If adopted, the legislation would bring the US art market—the world’s largest, accounting for 43% of global art sales, or $24.8bn, according to the most recent edition of Art Basel and UBS’s Art Market Report—more closely in line with the UK and European Union, which have adopted stricter anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations in recent years.

In the bitterly divided US Congress, the proposed AML legislation is a rare instance of bipartisan collaboration. The act was introducedon Wednesday (23 July) by a group of six Senators including three Democrats (John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Andy Kim of New Jersey) and three Republicans (Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and David McCormick of Pennsylvania).

“There is bipartisan interest in shining light into the murky world of art dealing,” Senator Whitehouse said in a statement. “Kleptocrats, foreign adversaries and other bad actors abuse the opaque nature of the high-end art market to evade American sanctions and stow their loot behind the rule of law.”

Senator Grassley added: “For decades, criminal enterprises have used America’s multibillion-dollar art industry as a personal piggy bank for money laundering schemes, terrorist financing and other nefarious activities. By requiring our nation’s art market to comply with existing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, this bipartisan legislation would keep art, and millions of dollars, out of the wrong hands.”