Ethics experts say President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who intends to sell some of his artwork for up to $500,000 apiece at a show, could be leveraging the president’s government position for personal profit.
The New York gallery owner will be withholding all transactional records from the autumn exhibit, including the identities of bidders and final buyers, and the amounts paid for the artwork.
“The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money,” said former Bush administration chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter, pointing to the art’s “awfully high prices.”
IS HUNTER BIDEN’S ART WORTH $500,000? HERE’S WHAT A CURATOR HAS TO SAY
“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” Painter, who served under former President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007, told the Washington Post.
The lack of transparency and the younger Biden’s own spotty background also caused concern.
“Because we don’t know who is paying for this art and we don’t know for sure that [Hunter Biden] knows, we have no way of monitoring whether people are buying access to the White House,” said Walter Shaub, who led the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama.
He added: “What these people are paying for is Hunter Biden’s last name.”
Art curator Jeffry Cudlin agreed, saying that the art on its face is worth relatively nothing due to its amateurish style.
“How much of that value is due to the art itself? That’s easy: None of it,” Cudlin, also a professor of art curatorial studies and practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art, previously told the Washington Examiner.
“They’re fine decorative amateur work. Hey, everybody needs a hobby!” he said, suggesting that the artwork should go for a more modest $850 to $3,000.
The artwork could score higher if a buyer sees the artwork as an investment opportunity, Cudlin noted.
“Things are worth whatever people will pay for things,” he said. “The value a critic, art historian, or curator might see in a work as successfully embodying powerful content, or showing an artist’s sure-footed relationship to the history and possibilities of a medium, may have absolutely nothing to do with whatever investment potential someone sees in an object as a collectible or novelty outside of their importance within the field of contemporary art.”
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The White House is pushing back on ethics questions as deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said that the Biden administration is holding itself to “the highest ethical standards.”
“The president has established the highest ethical standards of any administration in American history, and his family’s commitment to rigorous processes like this is a prime example,” he said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment.
