Lauren Moye, FISM NEWS
Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are investigating potential national security risks involving Hunter Biden’s artwork business. They believe these vague dealings may give foreigners special access to those in the White House by purchasing overpriced works of art.
Most recently, ranking member of the committed, James Comer (R-KY), requested documents important to this investigation to be turned over by Georges Bergès Gallery to assist this investigation. Comer wrote in his Sept. 7 letter to the gallery:
Given Mr. Biden’s connection to the White House, his network of foreign associates, your efforts to become the ‘lead guy in China’ and history of foreign nations that have ‘used transactions involving high-value art to ‘evade sanctions imposed on them by the United States,’ the extent and nature of your dealings with Mr. Biden must be subject to the same scrutiny.
How overvalued is Biden’s work? Biden’s art sales from $75,000 to $500,000 a piece. Jeffry Cudlin, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art, told the Washington Examiner, “How much of that value is due to the art itself? That’s easy: None of it.”
Comer wrote, “The prices your gallery has set for these pieces by a new, untrained, celebrity artist are unprecedented. One New York art adviser said such prices are ‘sort of insulting to the art ecosystem, as if anyone could do it.'”
The concern is that potential enemies of the United States will pay these prices to gain favor with the White House. The White House previously tried to reduce these concerns by creating an ethics guideline for Georges Bergès Gallery to follow. These guidelines include anonymity of Biden’s purchasers.
Comer responded to these guidelines in his letter, saying, “Though the White House has attempted to allay concerns about the appearance of selling access to the president by developing guidelines for your gallery, these guidelines actually create more obscurity for the buyers of Mr. Biden’s compositions, each of which—at their lowest prices—exceeds the median annual income for the American household.”
The requested documents include correspondence between the gallery and the White House, how sales prices of Biden’s artwork were determined, individuals who have purchased Biden’s artwork or attended his shows, and a copy of the ethic guidelines decided on by the White House.