“You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog,” said Harry S. Truman.
Hunter Biden is learning that lesson the hard way. It seems like just yesterday his paintings were being snapped up by Dem enthusiasts eager to get close to the Prodigal Son and, we assume, his dad. (This was prior to Hunter becoming an Important White House Advisor, a role Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson claim he assumed in Joe’s last year in the Oval Office.)
In 2021, Hunter launched a solo exhibition of his creations in New York City, with the help of dealer (correction: art dealer)
Georges Berges. (Berges has an accent grave over the final “e” in his name, presumably signaling something French in his DNA, which goes a long way in art circles, but I don’t know how to reproduce that on my desktop. Apologies to Monsieur Berges.) The gallery owner and ex-con, who was jailed in California in the 1990s for assault according to the Daily Mail, reportedly said he would be pricing Hunter’s masterpieces at between $75,000 and $500,000 – not bad for someone whose art history, so to speak, could fit on a matchbook cover.
Hunter’s paintings were to be bought and sold anonymously, in response to suspicions that the enterprise could facilitate money laundering or influence peddling. I personally assumed that no one in their right mind would want to be identified as a buyer of such ghastly pieces, but that’s just me.
The NY times stepped in to quell such nasty speculation, writing that only Berges himself would know who bought Biden’s pictures, and that the dealer expected buyers to be “serious collectors”, and not just of political influence.
In any event, it has been reported that Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, a friend of Biden, bought 11 paintings for nearly $1 million in total while Dem donor Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali shelled out less than $100,000 for two pictures. Overall, Hunter snagged a little over $1 million from his art career, which turned out to be brief, brought to a halt by his father bowing out of his reelection campaign.
In a court filing related to dismissal of a case he had brought, Hunter complained that his “income had decreased significantly”, noting that, “In the 2 to 3 years prior to December 2023, I sold 27 pieces of art at an average price of $54,481.48, but since then I have only sold 1 piece of art for $36,000 … I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened.”
Now we read of another blow to Poor Hunter’s fortunes. He is being sued by Winston & Strawn, a big-time Chicago law firm, for non-payment of his $50,000+ bill. This strikes me as an astonishing slap in the face; after all, couldn’t they have simply settled this in a less public fashion? Or worked with Hunter to get out from under his debt?
My guess is there’s a fair amount of money at stake. Hunter has been in legal hot water for years, and his sugar daddies appear to have disappeared. Much of his legal representation came from hot shot defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who charges $1,510 an hour and who left Winston & Strawn this past spring to set up his own firm. His former employees are doubtless peeved to be left with a hefty due bill.
It’s worth noting that Lowell is now defending Letitia James, another client who may generate prolonged representation and hefty fees. Lowell should probably do a credit check on James before she, too, goes under water.
