Hunter Biden’s artwork fetched $1.3 million, and it was revealed that a top Democratic donor and friend of the Biden family whom President Biden named to a prestigious commission was one of the top buyers.
Despite a promise that the buyers would remain anonymous, two names have been released: Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris.
When Hunter Biden first announced that he would make a high-dollar foray into the art world, the Biden team promised that those who bought Hunter’s art would remain anonymous. On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised an ‘absolute wall’ between his duties as president and his family’s business dealings.
In 2021, Hunter debuted at a ritzy art gallery in New York, where some of his amateur pieces carried sticker prices of $500,000.
Hunter Biden artwork fetched $1.3 million, and it was revealed that a top Democratic donor and friend of the Biden family whom President Biden named to a prestigious commission was one of the top buyers.
In 2021, Hunter debuted at a ritzy art gallery in New York, with a sticker price of $500,000.
The White House said buyers were vetted and their identities known only to the gallery — Hunter’s latest business venture would not become a way to sell White House influence.
But Hunter Biden did indeed learn the identities of two of his art buyers, according to an internal report citing three people with direct knowledge of Biden’s art career.
In July 2022, eight months after Hunter’s gallery opened, Joe Biden appointed Naftali to the Commission to Preserve American Heritage Abroad. It is unclear whether he had already purchased the art at that time.
Commission membership is unpaid and often filled by friends and allies of the president, much like ambassadors.
Naftali is prominent in California Democratic circles. He gave nearly $13,000 to the Biden campaign and donated $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year.
Last year she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.
It is also unclear how much Naftali spent on Hunter’s art. A single buyer paid $875,000 for 11 of Hunter’s paintings—though the person’s identity is unclear. The buyer apparently does not live in New York and is listed as ‘out of state’ in purchasing documents obtained by Insider.
The gallery received a 40 to 45 percent commission on sales totaling $1,379,000.
Despite a promise that the buyers would remain anonymous, two names have been released: Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali, above, and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris.
Morris, a writer, is a confidant and ‘fixer’ of Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden, gallerist Georges Burgess and Beau Biden, Jr. arrive at the opening of Hunter’s new show ‘Haiku’ at the Georges Burgess Gallery in New York City
A White House official told Insider that Naftali’s appointment was recommended by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and that there was no connection between her art purchases and her place on the commission.
An email found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop suggests he has helped people get places on the commission before. When a cousin wrote Hunter asking for help getting a similar appointment for their mother, Hunter wrote back: ‘Eric asked me for one of these the day after the 2008 election.’ He referred to Eric Schwerin — a former business partner who was appointed to the commission by President Obama in 2015.
Morris, a confidant and ‘fixer’ of Hunter’s, spent an undisclosed sum on the first son’s art. The wealthy Los Angeles-based attorney loaned Hunter nearly $2 million to pay back taxes he owed and avoid criminal charges. Hunter recently pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges for his tax crimes.
Morris occasionally paid Hunter’s living expenses in Los Angeles. to the New York Times. He helped her find a high-powered literary agent for her memoir Beautiful Things and helped seal the art gallery deal.
Morris has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes.
Republicans have Hunter Biden in their sights for an alleged influence-peddling scheme. Last week they released an unverified FBI form in which a confidential human source detailed a conversation with a Burisma executive who claimed Hunter and Joe were each paid $5 million in exchange for policy results when they were vice presidents.
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