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At least five prints of Hunter Biden’s works have already been sold for $ 75,000 each, and a team of attorneys are reviewing potential clients planning to attend his next gallery show in New York – which has now been delayed until in the spring, The Post learned.
The Georges Berges gallery sold the prints before the opening, on October 1, of a “pop-up” presentation in Los Angeles, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
It is not known who bought the reproductions – which cost a fraction of the maximum price of $ 500,000 for an original piece of the son marked by the President Biden scandal – or if others were sold after the show opened. of the.
“But most of the people authorized to purchase works are long-time private collectors of the gallery, people Berges know personally,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a prominent ethics expert told The Post that Biden’s recent discussions with attendees at his first exhibit showed that a White House attempt to prevent influence peddling by keeping buyers anonymous will not work and should be abandoned in favor of a “plan B.”
Richard Painter, who was President George W. Bush’s chief ethics counselor, said the opening of LA – where Hunter Biden mingled with around 200 guests – “just illustrates how this idea of sailing of secrecy does not occur.
“This shows that the deal will not be secret,” he said. “I think the White House needs to go to plan B.”
As for anyone who wants to see Biden’s paintings at the Berges Manhattan Gallery, the source said strict screening measures have been put in place.
“It’s quite a process to come in to see the Biden show. You have to call the gallery in Soho, and they carefully check people,” the source said.
“They have established rules that a thorough check of any collector should be carried out by a team of lawyers.”
The source also said that the New York show, which was scheduled to open this month, has been pushed back to spring, with the LA show continuing through November.
The purpose of the legal audit, which hired the lawyers and the reason for the delayed opening were not clear.
Painter, now a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, noted that “buyers buy art to hang on the wall, not to put in a closet.”
“They tend to be rich people, and rich people come to them and it tends to move,” he said.
“Everyone is going to talk about it and everyone is going to find out. “
Painter said the best way to prevent anyone from leveraging the White House by paying “crazy prices” for Hunter Biden’s artwork would be to sell them only after his departure. father.
Other than that, Painter said, there should be “full transparency” of the identity of buyers and President Biden and his appointees should all sign “challenge” pledges “to ensure that those people cannot access the market. the White House”.
“We did it at the Bush White House,” he said. “If people were trying to contact the government who were business partners of the Bushes, we made sure they contacted people who were not political appointments. “
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was pressed by reporters on Wednesday about LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is the President’s candidate for U.S. Ambassador to India, having attended the opening last week at Milk Studios in Hollywood.
“Should we expect to see more people seeking employment in this administration attend events like this in the future? Asked Steven Portnoy, reporter for CBS News Radio, president of the White House Correspondents Association.
Psaki got annoyed as she repeated months-old talking points and said in one case: “Again the gallerist spoke – we talked about the details of what the gallerist agreed to and the recommendations. that have been made. I have done this several times. I have no further details for this from here. I will point them out to you.
Neither the Berges Gallery, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, his book’s publicist, nor the White House responded to requests for comment Thursday.
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