WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden’s novice artwork has raked in at least $1.3 million — with buyers including a Democratic donor “friend’’ who his dad named to a prestigious commission, a report said Monday.
Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles real-estate investor and philanthropist, bought one of Hunter’s works, according to Business Insider, which cited sales records kept by his art dealer, the Georges Bergès Gallery of Manhattan.
Naftali was appointed by President Biden to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in July 2022 — about eight months after Hunter’s first art show, which took place in Hollywood.
It is unclear when Naftali bought her Hunter artwork or how much she paid for it.
A Biden administration official told the publication that Naftali was recommended for her preservation-board post by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and that she didn’t buy the position through the art deal.
Meanwhile, Business Insider said the largest chunk of Hunter’s art sales so far have gone to a deep-pocketed single mystery buyer — who scooped up 11 artworks for a total of $875,000.
Hunter Biden’s Democratic donor “friend” Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali reportedly purchased one of his pieces of art.
The outlet reported that one of Hunter’s art buyers is his “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealth lawyer who reportedly lent him about $2 million to pay off back taxes.
It wasn’t known whether Morris was the top buyer. Insider’s report was the most detailed to date on the first son’s art sales.
Bergès has refused to cooperate with House Oversight Committee requests for the names of art buyers.
Hunter Biden’s artwork has raked in at least $1.3 million, according to a report.Stephen Yang
The Post previously reported that Hunter sold five prints for $75,000 each at his Hollywood art show and totaling $375,000.
The showing drew ethics concerns over the fact that President Biden’s embattled nominee for US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, attended the show.
Garcetti ultimately was confirmed by the Senate in March after the White House stood by him for almost two years, including during criticism from fellow Democrats about his handling of sexual harassment claims against an aide while he was Los Angeles mayor.
Naftali was appointed by President Biden to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in July 2022.
House Republicans are investigating Hunter Biden’s prior business dealings with international business associates from countries such as China and Ukraine, where his father held sway as vice president, and have expressed concern about Hunter’s art career being a possible new avenue for influence-peddling and money laundering.
There is evidence that Joe Biden met with Hunter’s associates from China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine during his vice presidency and in the years before he entered the White House.
The White House said in 2021 that Hunter Biden’s art sales would be “anonymous” — in theory to prevent corruption.
“Bridging the Abstract,” a Hunter Biden art exhibit at Georges Bergès Gallery in New York.RCF / MEGA
Then-White House Press secretary Jen Psaki said at the time, “We still do not know and will not know who purchases any paintings.”
Ethics experts scoffed at the purported anonymity of Hunter’s art buyers.
Richard Painter, who was President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, said, “Buyers buy artwork to hang on the wall, not put in a closet,” making anonymity essentially impossible to maintain.
The White House and Hunter Biden’s legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Post on Monday.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
