At least crypto has critics, art has been abused by the rich for centuries, yet few people gives a fuck...

(Just to be clear, I don’t disagree with you)

Art sales have been criticized too. It's just they generally are dismissed as some high falutin nonsense whereas crypto is more accessible by folks in other domains.

Theres way better ways to launder money...I think you might be thinking of tax evasion.

Art is a great way to launder money for the ultra rich. It's a pretty widely known scheme covered over and over again. here's one sample: https://www.forbes.com/2003/04/08/cx_0408hot.html

I don’t see how this could work, at least with US tax law.

When it comes to tax evasion ("avoision") there is no limit of creativity.

But tax avoidance isn't illegal, this has been tested many times in the US courts.

I'm aware of that (hence the parens and quotes) but I was more referring to what could probably best be understood as "common understanding", that is to say that a large portion of the population would probably be shocked at the kind of sophisticated avoision strategies that have been deployed to minimize tax liability.

The average Joe doesn't declare $100 in income - evasion.

The ultra wealthy don't get taxed on $100,000,000 in income - avoision.

Some doing Technology abuse, some doing just for social image