
Anti-money laundering regulation on the art market, is it a friend or a foe? This research contributes new insights to test possible answers to this question through the analysis of Ordinance no. 396/2016/IPHAN, enacted in Brazil to establish compliance measures to be followed by art and antiquities dealers to control money laundering practices. A pyramidal regulatory model suggests a conjunction of self-regulatory measures, administrative sanctions and criminal penalties as useful instruments to mitigate these illicit practices. This study focuses on the administrative initiatives requiring art professionals to undertake anti-money laundering due diligence measures and it critically analyses the extent to which they may rearrange the relations between dealers and clients. The contributions of the regulatory framework are recognised in so far as it shows itself able to meet societal aspiration for a respectable art market through a shrewdly responsive intervention rather than just formal bureaucratic constraints.