Abstract A novel oxidative cycloisomerization of cis-enynols has been developed using a combination of hypervalent iodine (III) reagent, molecular iodine, and a base. This method offers an efficient synthesis of 2-acyl furans with diverse substitution patterns in a regioselective manner under mild reaction conditions. A mechanistic proposal for these transformations involving alkyne activation by trifluoroacetylhypoiodite generated in situ is ...