On its second workshop (9th and 10th March 2023), OPFA-CULT created synergies with other Internal Security Fund-Police funded project – Project CRAAFT. Complement and expand the expertise and network of the participants around cross-cutting topics was the main goal of this collaboration. In this sense, OPFA-CULT was honoured to have Maja Dehouck (PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, part of the ISF-P funded Project CRAAFT) delivering a presentation on ‘Financial Intelligence at the art-finance-security nexus: security practices in the art market’.
According to its official website, “Project CRAAFT is an academic research and community-building initiative designed to build stronger, more coordinated counter terrorist financing (CTF) capacity across the EU and its neighbourhood”.
Although Project CRAAFT does not focus specifically on illicit trafficking of cultural property, Maja Dehouck’s PhD research on anti money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures in the art market – and the research of Project CRAAFT in general – is a very valuable complement to OPFA-CULT’s project topic. With this collaboration, the law enforcement participants could expand their understanding of the different synergies between money laundering and the art market and apply new best practices and methods to their work.
