Intense pressure is mounting on art gallery owner Georges Berges to reveal details about the purchasers of first son Hunter Biden’s artwork.
On Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) demanded transparency in transactions involving large sums spent on the pieces. Berges owns the Georges Berges Gallery, which has featured works by President Joe Biden’s son.
Purchasers of the art spend into the hundreds of thousands of dollars while remaining anonymous. Comer wrote to Berges’ attorney insisting the gallery owner submit to a transcribed interview and reiterated his requests for specifics on the sales of the younger Biden’s paintings.
The buyers’ anonymity raised Republican suspicions of the origins of the substantial purchase prices.
Hunter Biden’s Art Dealer Reffuses to Provide GOP Committee with Requested Documents on Hunter’s Illicit Art Sales https://t.co/4QTIx9EpUE
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) February 19, 2023
As Comer noted in the letter, the prices ranging from $75,000 to $500,000 even raised the eyebrows of the Obama administration’s head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub. The former official publicly questioned the suspicious dealings.
The Republican alleged that “instead of fostering transparency, Mr. Berges and Mr. Biden struck an opaque arrangement that demands congressional oversight.”
Several Biden pieces were sold at a December art show in the Berges studio, which was his first that was open to the public. The 2021 exhibition and sale was invitation only.
The gallery owner defended his high-end client, saying his facility’s basement held several paintings Biden finished over two decades ago. This, he asserted, proved that the first son has “always been an artist.”
Berges said that the arrangement is being “misconstrued” with accusations that Hunter just began his art.
And now House Republicans want to know if the younger Biden is an artist worthy of hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on his works or if something else is afoot.
Comer told Biden’s attorney that the House committee is “reviewing legislative solutions that address the ethics and money laundering issues raised by certain high-end art deals.
The committee set March 27 as the deadline for Berges to hand over records of the art sales. He was asked for documentation of communications between himself and Hunter Biden as well as the White House.
They also requested an interview with the gallery owner no later than April 3.
Whether Hunter Biden is a serious artist is a question only the art world can answer. But Republicans are right to be suspicious when the president’s son can sell abstract paintings of birds and flowers — many done on sheet metal — for up to $500,000.
