Hunter Biden‘s artwork has brought in $1.4 million dollars, and it has been revealed that a top Democratic donor and Biden family friend who President Biden named to a prestigious commission was one of the top purchasers.
Despite a promise that all purchasers’ identities would be kept a 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 he would make a high-dollar foray into the art world, the Biden team promised 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 business dealings.
In 2021, Hunter made his debut at a ritzy New York art gallery, where the sticker price clocked in on some of his amateur pieces at $500,000.
The White House said at the time the buyers had been vetted and their identity was only known to the gallery – suggesting 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 purchasers, according to an Insider report that cites 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 for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. It’s not clear whether she had already purchased the art at that time.
Membership of the commission is unpaid and often filled by friends and allies of the president, much like ambassadorships.
Naftali is prominent in California Democratic circles. She’s given some $13,000 to the Biden campaign and has donated $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year.
Last year she hosted a fundraiser that was headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s also not clear how much Naftali spent on Hunter’s art. One single purchaser spent $875,000 on 11 of Hunter’s paintings- though the identity of that person is unclear. The buyer apparently does not reside 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 the total $1,379,000 in sales.
A White House official told Insider that Naftali’s appointment had been recommended by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and there was no connection between her art purchase and her spot on the commission.
An email found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop suggests that he has helped people get a spot on the commission before. When a cousin wrote to Hunter asking for help in getting a similar appointment for their mother, Hunter wrote back: ‘Eric asked me for one of these the day after the election in 2008.’ He was referring to Eric Schwerin – a former business partner who President Obama appointed to the commission in 2015.
Morris, a confidant and ‘fixer’ for Hunter, has spent an undisclosed amount on the first son’s art. The wealthy Los Angeles-based attorney has loaned Hunter some $2 million to pay the back taxes he owed and avoid felony charges. Hunter recently pleaded guilty two misdemeanor charges for his tax crimes.
Morris has at times paid Hunter’s living expenses in Los Angeles, according. to the New York Times. He helped him find a high-powered literary agent for his memoir ‘Beautiful Things’ and helped him seal the art gallery deal.
Morris has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic causes.
Republicans have Hunter Biden in their sights for alleged influence-peddling schemes. Last week they released an unverified FBI form where a confidential human source detailed a conversation with a Burisma executive who claimed Hunter and Joe had been paid $5 million each in exchange for policy outcomes when he was vice president.
