Mexico’s Anti Money Laundering Law Hurts Artists and Galleries

September 20, 2014

For more than three decades, Guillermo Zajarias has watched local painters become international stars, new galleries proliferate, and Mexico’s reputation soar as a hothouse for hip contemporary art.

“The art in Mexico is marvelous. It is superb,” said Zajarias, the owner of Aura Gallery. “The market should be growing. But it has totally frozen.”

Zajarias and other art dealers here blame their recent troubles on a new law intended to uncover the hidden profits in the lucrative world of Mexican drug trafficking. The government is now demanding more information from a wide range of businesses about who their customers . . .

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