Fellow dealers, collectors, auctioneers and antiques enthusiasts—

On July 23, a group of US senators — including John Fetterman, Chuck Grassley, Sheldon Whitehouse, Dave McCormick, Bill Cassidy and Andy Kim — introduced the Art Market Integrity Act. While this bill is innocently named, it is egregiously misguided and could impose severe regulations on many small businesses, antiques dealers, collectors, auction houses, museums and estates. The bill subjects most antiques and art dealers and auction houses to financial regulations designed for banks and casinos.

Three of the major consequences of the Art Market Integrity Act are:

1. It targets small businesses and individual dealers. It applies to anyone with at least $50,000 annual gross sales and individual transactions exceeding $10,000. It treats art dealers like banks and casinos under Federal Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

2. The compliance costs are high. Many large US financial institutions and casinos have hired full-time employees and AML consultants to meet the burdensome reporting requirements, and there are hefty fines for non-compliance.

3. There is overreach and lack of clarity. The bill seems to cover almost all innocent stakeholders in the antiques trade from small individual dealers to auction companies and it does not provide clear definitions of what constitutes as an “art dealer” and takes a broad stroke approach to specifying people “engaged in the trade in works of art, including a dealer, advisor, consultant, custodian, gallery, auction house, museum, collector or any other person who engages as a business as an intermediary in the sale of works of art.” Additionally, it creates legal uncertainty for all stakeholders.

As noted in a recent article in Cultural Property News, “The Art Market Integrity Act is not a ‘commonsense’ reform. It is a Trojan Horse, using the language of financial crime to pursue long-standing ideological goals aimed at eliminating the antiquities trade.”

ACT NOW!

We highly encourage you to call or write your US senator to explain how it will negatively impact your business before this bill moves forward any further. You can find your senator’s contact information at www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm.

Protect your business and together we will protect the antiques and arts industry.
Regards,

Zac Ziebarth
President, Antiques Dealers’ Association of America
info@ziebarths.com or 608-604-8493