Biden Admin Spending over $1.9M on Indigenous Art, Claims Purchase Is Saving Money

President Joe Biden’s administration is spending over $1.9 million on 11 pieces of indigenous art, Breitbart News has learned.

Through the State Department’s Art in Embassies (AIE) program, which “creates vital cross-cultural dialogue and fosters mutual understanding through the visual arts and dynamic artist exchanges,” taxpayers can expect to purchase nearly $2 million in indigenous art “to complement the varying architecture of Capital Projects,” a Department of State document obtained by Breitbart News indicated.

The nearly $2 million dollars worth of art is apparently meant to provide “cost savings” and hide the “visual effects of Security measures.”

“The strategic integration of art in the design phase of new buildings ensures significant site-specific commissions visually enhance the building, present accessible imagery, and can serve essential functions by providing cost saving wall surfaces or mitigating the visual effects of security measures,” the document reads.

The art will not hang in the United States but abroad in Guatemala City, Hyderabad, Maputo, Mexico City, Nairobi, Podgorica, Rio de Janeiro, and Tegucigalpa. The artwork includes tapestries, paintings, mixed media, sculptures, and murals. The costs of the pieces range from $42,500 to $350,000.

Some of the art is described as “monumentally-scaled,” “internationally recognized,” “an example of a cross-cultural connection,” “inspired by the revered baobab tree,” and “celestial.”

The State Department said the AIE program’s purpose is to “connect” American buildings to the host country by “evoking” a “dialogue that supports our diplomatic” challenges.

“The collections connect the buildings to the U.S. and host country by evoking both country’s culture and providing a dynamic platform for face-to-face dialogue that supports our diplomatic missions,” the document reads.

The 11 indigenous pieces of art are just one aspect of the AIE program. The State Department states the AIE program encompasses “60 exhibitions per year and has installed over 70 permanent art collections in more than 200 of the Department’s diplomatic facilities in 189 countries.”

“To accomplish the mission, AIE engages over 20,000 international participants, including artists, museums, galleries, universities, and private collectors,” the State Department website reads.

The AIE program raises questions about wasteful federal government spending. According to Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the federal government has wasted about $10.5 trillion under Joe Biden.

“Wasteful spending, whether it’s in the billions or whether it’s in the thousands—is wasteful spending. And at the end of the day,” Lankford said in April on the Senate floor. “We need to understand the American people are counting on us to make hard decisions, and there are lots and lots of hard decisions. But currently as a body, we’re not even discussing 30 trillion in debt.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.