Tag Archives: artwork

Did Anyone Believe This When It Was Reported?

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Yesterday The New York Post posted an article about the sale of Hunter Biden’s art work.

The article reports:

First son Hunter Biden is expected to meet with prospective buyers at shows carrying his artwork later this year in New York and Los Angeles, raising new ethical concerns about influence peddling tied to the sales, according to a report.

​President Biden’s son is expected to appear at during a private affair in Los Angeles and a larger show in the Big Apple, Georges Berges Gallery spokeswoman Robin Davis told CBS News. ​​

“He’s looking forward to it. It is like someone debuting in the world. And of course he will be there,” Davis said. 

Davis said the potential buyers “will be vetted … so whomever is appropriate will be attending.”

Obviously this arrangement is in conflict with what Americans were originally told.

The article notes:

The arrangement appears to conflict with a promise from the White House that the identities of the potential buyers would be kept secret. 

“The gallerist will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration, which provides quite a level of protection,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a briefing earlier this month when asked about the ethical guidelines surrounding Biden’s artwork.

The article details the original arrangement:

Under the deal agreed upon by the White House, only the gallery owner would know the buyer’s identity or the sale price, and it would be up to Georges Berges to flag suspected buys or bids beyond a reasonable price.

Walter Shaub, the ethics adviser for the Obama administration, said the White House appears to be “outsourcing government ethics” to the gallery.

“Is Hunter Biden going to walk around the art show with a blindfold on?” Shaub said. “It just goes to show you the focus isn’t on government ethics. It’s just showing the child of a president can cash in on the presidency.”

It seems that even the ethics advisor for the Obama administration realizes what a scam this is.

Ethics?

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ABC News is reporting today that all sales of Hunter Biden’s artwork will be handled through an art gallery that will set prices independently and keep the identities of buyers confidential, including from the president and administration officials. Yeah, right.

The article reports:

White House officials were involved in creating the arrangement, according to the source, as a way to avoid any suggestion of preferential treatment or conflict of interest.

According to the Washington Post, which first reported the story, Berges has said Hunter Biden’s artwork could be priced anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000.

But ethics experts are raising concerns about the agreement.

“This arrangement is problematic. The best disinfectant, in this case, would have been to have a publicly open process. The public could see who the purchasers are, and then it would be incumbent upon the Bidens to bear the burden of saying why it isn’t a conflict,” said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the influence of money in politics.

“The White House went the absolute opposite way they should have gone. The only people, in the end, who won’t know who the buyers are is the public. By going the shadow direction, this raises more questions than answers,” she said.

Based on the past history of Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family, could we have expected anything less? This is almost as good as the finances of the Clinton Foundation. I am sure that it was simply an incredible coincidence that when Hillary Clinton no longer had power and influence in Washington, the donations to the Clinton Foundation dried up. Likewise, I suspect that the demand for Hunter Biden’s artwork will shrink drastically when Joe Biden is no longer President.