Correctly realizing that alleged influence peddling probably wasn’t such a good look for a man whose father sits in the Oval Office, Hunter Biden has managed to reinvent himself as an artist. If abstract is your thing, some of Biden Junior’s work is not bad at all. Thus, it would be grossly unfair to say he’s a fraud or a charlatan with no real talent. However, there are plenty of very talented artists out there who rarely, if ever, sell a piece of their work. Success in the art world requires connections. Luckily for Hunter, he has those – and now, once again, he seems to have hit upon a new money-making scheme based on the Biden name.
Rather than just admit that he has very quickly gained generous patronage from his dad’s political allies and supporters, though, Hunter Biden and those who circled the wagons around him have denied he’s enjoyed any special advantage because of who he is.
Hunter Biden (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
A quick dive into who is promoting his artistic endeavors and who’s buying his work reveals that this isn’t the story of a creative genius bursting suddenly onto the scene by sheer force of determination. Instead, it’s the usual Biden cronies who have made Hunter the suddenly celebrated painter he has become.
Hunter Biden himself and those who speak for him have claimed he doesn’t even know who’s buying his work. Art dealer and prestigious Manhattan gallery owner Georges Bergès has revealed to congressional investigators that nothing could be further from the truth.
Hunter Biden the Not So Struggling Artist
It is pretty much inconceivable that an upcoming unknown painter would land a solo exhibition at the Georges Bergès Gallery in SoHo. Hunter Biden got his own show there in 2021. Republican lawmakers were told that, according to the contract Bergès signed with Biden, “gallery will give artist list of names of purchasers of work with prices … on a quarterly basis.” Established artists whose creations are in demand could and sometimes do insert such a clause into their contracts. As a relative newbie, though, Hunter Biden almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to make such a demand if his last name didn’t give him special privileges.
One Los Angeles gallery owner, Stefan Simchowitz, described this contractual stipulation as “arrogant.” The veteran art dealer told the New York Post that he didn’t understand why such a condition would be in Biden’s contract with the gallery. “The artists who do ask for it are usually well established,” he said, “not an emerging artist like Hunter selling his sh–ty art.”
It has also come to light that most Hunter Biden art sales have been to Democrat donors and Biden family associates. Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali, a real estate investor and big time Democrat donor, was revealed as one of the buyers of Hunter’s creations. Naftali has been a frequent visitor to the Biden White House and, in 2022, Joe Biden appointed her to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. She has purchased Hunter’s work both before and since that appointment.
Another of Hunter’s buyers is none other than his “sugar brother” – the man who paid off Biden’s substantial tax bill – Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris.
Yet, in July of 2021, the White House asserted publicly that an arrangement with the Bergès gallery had been made, specifically to avoid any perception of influence peddling. According to that arrangement, Hunter Biden would not set the prices of his art, nor would he be informed of buyers’ identities.
Here we are again, then. It appears that the Bidens are simply unable to stop using the family name and decades of political influence to make a buck. At this point, it is staggering to watch one privileged family flaunt its position so obviously and seemingly with no regard for how it looks to the American people even if nothing illegal is going on.
Certain activities can be legally defined as corrupt, but corruption doesn’t necessarily have to be illegal. Merriam-Webster defines corruption as “dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people” and as “inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (such as bribery).” His sudden success as an artist, made possible only by his last name, isn’t illegal. Nevertheless, Hunter Biden is once again steering a venture that can absolutely be described as dishonest and improper. Regardless of whether laws have been broken, it is little wonder that a growing number of Americans – including Democrat voters – say the Bidens stink of corruption.
