In his op-ed "The New Sovereign Players in the Art Market", published in Cinco Días, Arturo Bartolomé, Associate at Kepler-Karst, analyses the emergence of States and sovereign wealth funds in the international art market and the legal challenges their participation raises.
The article starts from a fundamental asymmetry: although these players operate like any other buyer, their nature and resources are substantially different from those of a private operator, and competition rules were not designed with them in mind. From there, it examines the implications for transparency, anti-money laundering, provenance and future public access to cultural heritage.
Its conclusion opens a much-needed debate by asking whether the current legal framework is equipped to deal with a buyer that can act simultaneously as collector, financier, owner of cultural institutions and investor.
Read the full article (in Spanish) here.
Access the Spanish version here.
