‘Millions of dollars’ in Hunter Biden’s artwork reduced to ashes

I like Hunter Biden’s artwork. If I were furnishing my first apartment and needed some posters, I would totally drop $50 on a Hunter Biden poster. And even now, if I were on vacation at some seaside resort, saw one of his paintings at a local art gallery, and felt like dropping a couple of hundred bucks, I might buy one in a moment of vacation-induced frivolity. That last opportunity, though, may never come my way because almost 200 Hunter Biden artworks were burned in the Los Angeles fire.

The New York Post reports:

A trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden has been destroyed — one of the casualties of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, The Post has learned.

The controversial art had been in storage near the Pacific Palisades home of Hunter’s Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris and is valued at “millions of dollars,” a source close to the Biden family said.

As you may recall, Hunter Biden discovered his talent when he was getting off of his drug addiction. His paintings are very nice. They’re easily worth a couple of hundred bucks as home décor (maybe in the guest bathroom?) or higher-end hotel artwork:

What they’re not worth, though, is millions of dollars. That would never have happened in a free market. What made Hunter Biden’s art so valuable is that they were sold to mostly anonymous buyers who were presumably anxious to gain access to or curry favor with Hunter’s father (that would be President Joe Biden):

In total, there have been 10 buyers of the art, who have paid a sum of $1.5 million. Under their agreement, the gallerist received 40 percent of the sales while Biden took 60 percent.

Three of the buyers have been identified, while the other seven remain anonymous. The largest share of the work — 11 paintings, for a total of $875,000 — went to Kevin Morris, who has become one of Biden’s closest friends while also acting as an attorney and financial benefactor.

[snip]

Democratic donor Elizabeth Naftali bought two pieces of Biden’s, one for $52,000 and another for $42,000. President Biden appointed her in 2022 to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

William Jacques, an art collector whom Bergès described as a “really good friend” and part-owner of his gallery, bought four pieces for a total of $122,500.

What’s going to be interesting moving forward is how Kevin Morris values the lost paintings for purposes of his insurance claims. Will he try to recover the pre-November 5, 2024, value of millions, or the post-November 5, 2024, value of hundreds, or, at best, thousands? Inquiring minds want to know.

Image by Grok.

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