OFAC Advisory Notice Highlighting Potential Sanctions Risks Stemming From Dealing In High-Value Artwork

The U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued on October 30th and released on November 2nd  the advisory to art market participants, highlighting the risk of incurring penalties stemming from dealings in high-value artwork associated with blocked persons and entities. This advisory comes on the heels of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Investigations' report issued on July 29th, which demonstrated the facility with which foreign bad actors are able to evade OFAC sanctions and engage in money laundering through art market purchases.

The Government usually takes this step—issuing a warning—as a precursor to embarking on some sort of action so that a target cannot later complain that it was not put on notice of the risks associated with violating a sanction. This is all the more important as a violation of OFAC regulations is a strict liability offense: you don't have to know that the person or entity with whom you are dealing either