Christie's and Sotheby's will help find the assets of oligarchs

Three leading auction houses - Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips - will participate in an international investigation into the assets of Russian "oligarchs" that fell under sanctions, ARTnews magazine reported citing representatives of the sites.

Due to the sanctions, auction houses are prohibited from making deals with restricted Russians and their affiliates abroad.

"We are following the current sanctions with absolute strictness and are closely monitoring any updates to the lists," a Sotheby's spokesperson said in a statement.

A spokesman for Christie's, in turn, noted that the auction house adheres to "strict customer identification and verification procedures" and that "politically exposed persons, as well as those associated with jurisdictions under sanctions or other jurisdictions with a high level of risk" are under special attention.