Is the Biden money-making machine gig up?
Sure looks like it, given the situation with artistic genius, Hunter Biden.
According to the Washington Free Beacon's Alana Goodman:
Hunter Biden is in financial turmoil after his paintings sold for less than the six-figure price tags estimated by his gallerist ...
Biden has sold around a dozen paintings "for a fraction of the $500,000 price tag once estimated" by his Manhattan gallerist Georges Berges, according to the Post. The congressional investigations into Biden have also spooked some prospective buyers, a source told the newspaper.
Leaving aside the issue of a legal defense fund and taking one step back, it appears that the art world wasn't exactly fooled by the hype and publicity about Hunter Biden's amazing and newly discovered art talent, with newbie paintings supposedly being ready to sell for $500,000 a pop and he never did become the hottest thing around at the galleries.
After all, that was the plan, wasn't it? The celebs showed up at his gallery opening, and the $500,000 sales estimates for his blow-pipe paintings suggested on paper at least that Hunter had some extraordinary talent, and collectors were just itching to get their hands on his glorious oeuvres. For a new artist to start selling paintings at $500,000, it would have to be someone from whom the demand was extraordinarily strong.
But that was the line fed to the public and oh, how certain art "experts" praised the hot new talent.
Here is what the New York Post reported in 2021:
Scandal-tarnished first son Hunter Biden’s newfound career as a painter may actually prove to be a success — as experts say his artwork is impressive and will fetch big bucks.
“I think it’s pretty strong — I like it,’’ Mark Tribe, chairman of the MFA Fine Arts Department at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, told The Post.
“The colors and compelling organic forms — it’s the kind of organic abstraction that I find easy on the eyes and provokes your curiosity,’’ Tribe said of the mixed-media paintings and drawings by President Biden’s son.
...and...
“I’ve been in the art business since 1956,’’ Alex Acevedo, 75, who owns the Alexander Gallery in Midtown Manhattan, told The Post.
“I’m not impressed with modern art at all. But I was floored by that guy,’’ he said of Hunter’s artwork.
“The palette was wonderful. The space was well-organized. I would buy a couple of them.
“And anybody who buys it would be guaranteed instant profit,” Acevedo added. “He’s the president’s son. Everybody would want a piece of that. The provenance is impeccable.’’
He also drew gushing profiles in the press about all his 'talent' from formidable sources, such as ArtNetNews and 60 Minutes, where he talked about all his "deep" thoughts.
And as for the gallery owner who's promoting this gig, Georges Bergès, the New York Times had doozy from him:
Mr. Biden’s art carries value because he is, by Mr. Bergès’s accounting, someone whose art will be remembered for a long, long time. He refers to a Biden painting as a “totem of reflection,” and with no hint of irony, he said: “Hunter will go down as a great artist for this century. If anything, his father will be known as the father of a great artist.”
Sounds legit.
Oh how he fooled them. Except that they weren't fooled. Nobody's giving him $500,000 for his paintings because they aren't worth $500,000, and not just that, if they did, everyone would know that paying that kind of cash to a guy whose entire career is based on influence-peddling and is now well-known to the public, would probably leave them exposed to congressional investigations or maybe even lawmen for bribery, which is what this entire operation looks like.
It also would diminish their prestige in the art world, telling everyone else in tout le monde of arts that they don't know much about how to find value in art after all. Those remarks cited by those supposed arts experts, quoted by the Post, are running liabilities now, given that the art world wasn't fooled by their toutings. They knew what was going on.
Here's the reaction of one heavyweight art critic who wasn't fooled, even before he heard any of the hype about Hunter or even knew anything about him, the estimable Jerry Saltz of New York magazine:
Saltz knows what art is and understands the art market as well.
Knowing what he is talking about, he read the scam correctly from the very beginning, as did actual artists, such as Rod Webber, whom I wrote about here.
Now with the sales flop, Hunter and his flatterers stand exposed for everyone else, the naked emperor with no clothes on in his court, which is kind of Hunter's taste anyway.
Image: Screen shot from Fox News video, via YouTube