House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) opened a probe into a buyer of Hunter Biden’s artwork to ascertain if Hunter used his novice art career to “peddle influence in and access to the White House.”
Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a prominent Biden donor and Biden appointee to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, reportedly bought Hunter Biden’s art in July 2022. It is unknown if Hirsh’s purchase occurred before or after her appointment to that position.
“The Committee is concerned Hunter Biden has used his new career as an artist to peddle influence in and access to the White House,” Comer said.
“The White House has stated that ‘Hunter Biden would be walled off from knowing the identities of his buyers in an attempt to separate his business dealings from his father’s administration,'” Comer wrote in a statement, continuing:
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, told reporters that the gallery “does not disclose the names of any purchasers to Mr. Biden.” This system, however, seems to have failed, because Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali’s identity as a purchaser of this art has become public.
“Her position on the Commission is particularly suspicious because of Hunter Biden’s previous actions to elevate his business partner—Eric Schwerin—to the same post while his father was Vice President,” he added.
Naftali also reportedly visited the White House 13 times after the president’s son first showcased his paintings at his art dealer’s gallery in New York City.
Naftali is not the only purchaser of Hunter Biden’s art. A mystery buyer reportedly spent $875,000 on 11 Hunter Biden paintings from his art dealer, Georges Bergès, who previously boasted strong ties to businessmen in Communist China.
Hunter Biden also reportedly sold art to his top lawyer, Kevin Morris, who also paid Hunter’s IRS bill of about $2 million. The entertainment lawyer is at the center of Hunter Biden’s new-found career of painting modern art, an occupation connected to the art market known for corruption.
Author Kevin Morris, who is also Hunter Biden’s attorney, attends his “White Man’s Problems” book release party on June 3, 2014, in Los Angeles, California. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
A Senate subcommittee report detailed in 2020 how the art market serves as a vehicle for money laundering, but the report did not appear to worry the White House, which defended Hunter’s new art career as “reasonable.”
The president’s son “is not involved in the sale or discussions about the sale of his art,” and he will not be “informed” of “who is purchasing his art,” former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.