The Hunter Biden artwork has raised $1.4 million dollars, and one of the main buyers has been revealed to be a top Democratic donor and friend of the Biden family that President Biden appointed to a prestigious commission.
Despite a promise that the identities of all buyers would be kept secret, two names have been revealed: 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 be making a big-money foray into the art world, Biden’s team promised that the identities of those who purchased 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 businesses.
In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price of some of his amateur pieces reached $500,000.
The Hunter Biden artwork has raised $1.4 million dollars, and a major Democratic donor and friend of the Biden family who President Biden appointed to a prestigious commission has been revealed to be one of the main buyers.
In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price of some of his amateur pieces reached $500,000.
The White House said at the time that the buyers had been vetted and only the gallery knew their identity, suggesting that Hunter’s latest business venture would not become a way to sell White House influence.
But Hunter Biden did, in fact, learn the identity of two of his art buyers, according to a internal report which cites three people with direct knowledge of Biden’s artistic career.
In July 2022, eight months after Hunter’s gallery opened, Joe Biden appointed Naftali to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Overseas Heritage. It is not clear if he had already purchased the art at the time.
Commission membership is unpaid and is often held by friends and allies of the president, as are embassies.
Naftali is prominent in California Democratic circles. He has donated about $13,000 to the Biden campaign and has donated $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year.
Last year he hosted a fundraiser spearheaded by Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s also unclear how much Naftali spent on Hunter’s art. A single buyer spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter’s paintings, though the identity of that person is unclear. The buyer appears to not reside in New York and is listed as “out of state” on the purchase documents obtained by Insider.
The gallery received a 40 to 45 percent commission on the total $1,379,000 in sales.
Despite a promise that the identities of all buyers would be kept secret, two names have been revealed: Los Angeles-based real estate investor and Democratic donor Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali, above, and Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris.
Morris, also an author, is a confidante and ‘fixer’ for Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden, gallery owner Georges Berges and Beau Biden, Jr. arrive at the opening of Hunter’s new show ‘Haiku’ at the Georges Berges Gallery in New York City
A White House official told Insider that Naftali’s appointment had been recommended by former President Nancy Pelosi and that there was no connection between his purchase of art and his place on the commission.
An email found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop suggests he has helped people get seats on the commission before. When a cousin wrote Hunter asking for help getting a similar appointment for his mother, Hunter replied: “Eric asked me for one of these the day after the 2008 election.” He was referring to Eric Schwerin, a former business associate that President Obama appointed to the commission in 2015.
Morris, a confidante and “fixer” to Hunter, has spent an undisclosed amount on the firstborn’s art. The wealthy Los Angeles-based lawyer loaned Hunter some $2 million to pay back taxes he owed and avoid felony charges. Hunter recently pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts for his tax offenses.
According to Morris, he has at times paid Hunter’s living expenses in Los Angeles. to the New York Times. She helped him find a high-level literary agent for his memoir ‘Beautiful Things’ and helped him seal the deal with the art gallery.
Morris has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes.
Republicans are targeting Hunter Biden for alleged influence-peddling schemes. 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 had each been paid $5 million in exchange for policy outcomes when he was vice president.
