re: This painting from Cy Twombly sold for 41.6 million last year

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Very little oversight into art dealings (or used to be).

In my understanding, which is limited, you'd buy the art with drug money through a shell/holding company which no one cares about. Anonymous buyers and sellers are very common in the art world. Then transfer asset to another and sell the art a few years later for clean money.

It's more complicated than that though

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There still isn't and there are several places in the world, like France where the acquisition of works of art are tax exempt for both parties.

Not only that, if it is purchased through a shell corporation, it can be an expenditure to drive down your taxable income. Sales of art in the US fall under capital gains taxes but, capital gains on the sales of art assets by individuals are only taxable if the assets were held for a period of less than one year.

There are so many loopholes with art, that it's one of the most shady businesses that flies under the radar.

Valuation for artwork is a huge issue as well. Not to get political, but how does Hunter Biden sell art for $500,000? Who did the evaluation on that, and why is it considered important work. It's not, but it's a fast and easy way to legitimately move massive amounts of money with little oversight, with no fair valuation mechanism and largely tax free if done correctly.