Hunter Biden’s art representative, George Bergès, said he never worked with the White House to establish an ethics pact to be sure that Hunter Biden and his powerful family would not know the identities of those who purchased Hunter’s art for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Bergès testified before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, according to a readout of the closed-door deposition.
The art dealer testified that Hunter, 53, knew who bought about 70% of his art — including Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, who obtained works by the first son both before and after scoring a prestigious presidential appointment.
Bergès disclosed that he personally interacted with Joe Biden on multiple occasions, including at a closed-to-the-press White House wedding for Hunter’s daughter Naomi in 2022.
The high-stakes testimony came as the Oversight Committee spearheads an impeachment inquiry into whether the elder Biden was corruptly involved with his son and brother James’s foreign ventures while vice president.
The news of the gossamer curtain between the first son’s creative endeavors and his father’s benevolence toward the buyers thereof contradicts 2021 reporting from the Washington Post that claimed the president and Hunter’s attorney established a privacy agreement that would theoretically preserve buyers’ anonymity.
Hunter Biden has earned over $1.3 million for his artwork, as of July 2023.
Oversight chairman James Comer said in a statement, “Hunter Biden’s gallerist never had any communication with the White House about such an agreement to make sure there was any sort of ethics compliance at all, and he provided information to the committee revealing how Hunter Biden’s amateur art career is an ethics nightmare. The vast majority of Hunter Biden’s art has been purchased by Democrat donors, one of whom was appointed by President Biden to a prestigious commission after she purchased Hunter Biden’s art for tens of thousands of dollars shortly after Joe Biden’s inauguration.”
The Bidens and their position in politics have granted the family decades of the largesse of their state’s universities, political donors, and an international coalition of influence customers. After six decades or more of sidestepping ethical conduct, why would the Biden family have started on the straight and narrow when looking to swap cozened canvas for cash?