Anti-money laundering regulatory compliance by private sector art market actors: learning, experience, and interaction

Staas, Katharina (2026) Anti-money laundering regulatory compliance by private sector art market actors: learning, experience, and interaction. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

With the adoption of the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (2018/843) on 30 May 2018, art market actors were explicitly added to the list of obliged entities to the extent that they store (within free zones and customs warehouses), trade, or act as an intermediary in the trade of works of art where the value of the transaction or linked transactions amounts to at least EUR 10,000. AML regulation essentially relies on market actors and their ways of managing risk to regulate economic crime, thereby working together with private sector actors on public matters. Through this collaboration, private governance regimes are created. These private governance regimes are shaped by and evolve with the experience and interactions of their actors. The collaboration is between private sector actors and also between national governments and international regulators.

This doctoral thesis analyses how the regulatory changes have impacted art market actors in Germany, how they have worked to address them, and what kind of organisational thinking is necessary to do this effectively. Getting involved in achieving public goals can be quite an abstract thing for art market actors and is sometimes viewed as counter to their purposes as profit-seeking private market actors. When designing private regulatory regimes, the experience, willingness, and attitude of those private actors are an essential part of their effectiveness. Upon examining this niche market in terms of how its actors learn, experience, and interact with regulatory compliance, I am drawing out generalisable lessons towards regulation.

This thesis adopts a socio-legal framework centred on regulatory discretion and social embeddedness. It is based on qualitative interviews conducted with art market actors in Germany between June and October 2022 and my professional experience in AML and sanctions compliance. Drawing on the generated data, I contribute new empirical knowledge on how AML compliance is learned, experienced, and shaped through interaction in the private sector art market. This thesis is thus about collaborative regulation and governance regimes, and how findings from learning, experience, and interaction can be used to understand why AML regulatory compliance takes specific forms and how to increase the relevance and practicality of the AML framework.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Supervisor's Name: Thomas, Dr. Dania and Moncrieff, Dr. Lilian
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-85803
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 12 Mar 2026 10:22
• Last Modified: 12 Mar 2026 10:24
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85803
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85803