Commentary
It’s 2019 and you’re at Art Basel viewing a decaying banana duct-taped to a wall.
This unconventional piece is aptly named, “the Comedian.” Bidding has stopped at $120,000. Do you raise it?
Or perhaps you have a cool $137.5 million to play with. Do you spend it on Willem Kooning’s 1953 “Woman III,” a seemingly distorted scribble but now ranked as the fourth most expensive painting in the world?
If you answered no and no, either you’re not so easily beguiled or you don’t adhere to a set of unconventional aesthetic standards embraced by billionaire art.
Or perhaps some purchasers may have an underlying motive beyond appreciation for artistic expression? Is it conceivable that the art world serves as a covert playground for money laundering activities?
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Art lacks a clearly defined market value thus providing an ideal backdrop for money laundering. This feature distinguishes it from more regulated industries such as your local café.
Could you imagine your friendly barista attempting to peddle a decaf soy latte for an exorbitant $20,000?
Such brazen audacity would promptly summon the gaze of authorities because in spite of the increased cost of living, coffee prices have yet to achieve such fantastical dimensions.
Yet not so in the world of paint and horsehair brushes where the purchase of a mere scribble on canvas for $50,000 elicits little more than a nonchalant raise of the brow.
The ease with which artworks can be clandestinely transported and concealed further contributes to its appeal for money launderers.
Artworks conveniently vanish into the abyss for extended periods, ostensibly residing in “private collections” with undisclosed locations. This masked characteristic renders art a highly attractive vehicle for those seeking to camouflage their ill-gotten gains.
Perfect Money Laundering Front
For those seeking the ideal breeding ground for money laundering endeavours, the circumstances couldn’t be more enticing. The art world, it appears, has been entwined in numerous instances of facilitating money laundering.Take the early 2010s, when the Mexican government enacted legislation demanding more information about art buyers and restricting cash expenditures on a single piece.
The repercussions were stark.
The market nosedived and sales plummeted by a staggering 70 percent in less than a year. Speculation arose that the primary patrons, the Mexican cartel rings, had significantly fuelled the market’s vitality.
A policeman looks through a window in Mexico City on May 25, 2014. Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images
But just how do you complete this surreptitious act?
Imagine an inert $10 million sitting in your home safe.
A Picasso purchase at a Geneva auction becomes the perfect cover. Swiftly whisked away to a freeport—a secure storage space in close proximity to the airport—the painting, shielded by anonymity, can be furtively resold without moving a whisker. The new owner, in turn, retrieves their prized acquisition from the same cloaked freeport.
In this orchestrated ballet, the initial buyer, now transformed into a seller, reaps the financial rewards under the guise of a seemingly legitimate business transaction.
It was estimated that in 2013, the Geneva freeport housed a staggering $100 billion worth of U.S. art, residing in a space that some may surmise could cleverly double as a discreet tax haven.
A more ominous narrative unfolds in the realm of international terrorism, where entities like ISIS have achieved notoriety for laundering cultural antiquities.
Despite losing control over significant territories to government-backed forces, reports suggest that ISIS retains control of substantial funds—potentially in the hundreds of millions—largely sustained by a thriving antiquities trade.
The Wall Street Journal, in a 2017 exposé, delved into jihadists who supervise local excavation groups in Iraq and Syria.
When a valuable item is unearthed, the digger sells it to ISIS officials at a reduced price. Subsequently, independent middlemen facilitate the smuggling of these goods, often reaching countries like Lebanon and Turkey.
The artefacts eventually find refuge in European warehouses, awaiting eager Western buyers.
Insert Intelligence Involvement
Then there’s the CIA’s involvement in the modern art movement, a revelation confirmed by former CIA operative Donald Jameson, shedding light on an intricate chapter in the annals of espionage.According to Mr. Jameson, the agency perceived Abstract Expressionism as an opportunity and illicitly championed it, turning American modern art into a formidable weapon during the Cold War era.
In a manner reminiscent of a Renaissance prince, albeit shrouded in secrecy, the CIA nurtured and propelled American Abstract Expressionist painting worldwide for over two decades.
A woman takes a photo inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in San Francisco, Calif., on April 28, 2016.
Josh Edelson /Getty Images
Josh Edelson /Getty Images
But why this shrouded support?
In the propaganda warfare against the Soviet Union, this avant-garde artistic movement served as a testament to the creativity, intellectual freedom, and cultural prowess of the United States.
Russian art, ensnared within the confines of communist ideology, paled in comparison.
Operating through the Propaganda Assets Inventory, an apparatus with influence over more than 800 media outlets, the CIA wielded its power like a strategic jukebox, orchestrating a symphony of messages across the global stage.
The ideological battleground of the Cold War birthed a cultural rebellion behind the Iron Curtain.
Abstract Expressionism, with its meteoric ascent on the global stage, was not a mere organic evolution.
The CIA orchestrated a symphony, spreading both the artistic style and its underlying ideology to counter the stark realism of socialist art, thereby challenging the very fabric of communist culture.
It funded luminaries of American abstract expressionism, including the likes of Jackson Pollock, to project an image of unbridled artistic freedom flourishing in the United States.
After the shadows of undercover operations blended with the Cold War strokes of a Pollock, the art world continued to be a cryptic realm where aesthetics intertwined with political agendas, leaving us to question the true motivations behind the masterpieces at our private and national galleries and transforming the perception of art worldwide.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
