These Principles draw on the Basel Art Trade Guidelines originally issued in draft in 2012 and reissued in 2018 without any material changes. This paper seeks to complement and set out in more detail the anti-money laundering aspects of the 2012/2018 Guidelines.

The art trade market is global, highly fragmented and complex, involving a great variety of operators. In light of this complexity, the current level of regulation and existing compliance efforts by individual operators has proven to be insufficient. With some competitors engaged in unethical or illegal behaviour, operating profitably while acting with integrity and ethics is increasingly difficult.