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House Republicans are now setting their sights on Hunter Biden’s art sales, renewing a request that their art dealer provide a list of who bought the works.
The House Oversight Committee also requested details about how the White House had crafted the deal with art dealer Georges Bergès to keep the list of buyers anonymous from both the White House and the public.
Oversight chairman James Comer said Bergès had not responded to previous requests for information about the sales in the past Congress, but with Republicans in the majority and the threat of subpoena, he expected a response this time.
“Despite being a fledgling artist, Hunter Biden received exorbitant amounts of money from the sale of his artwork, the identities of the buyers remain unknown and you appear to be the only one keeping track of these lucrative transactions,” he wrote. Eat at Bergès.
The president said that since the last request from Republicans, Hunter Biden had held another exhibit at his SoHo art gallery.
Hunter’s most recent artwork advertised prices between $55,000 and $225,000, according to the Daily Beast.
House Republicans, led by Oversight Chairman James Comer, are now setting their sights on Hunter Biden’s art sales, renewing a request that their art dealer provide a list of who bought the works.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, told the Wall Street Journal that the letter “shows how far and how early our colleagues have already strayed off track in the new Congress. The purpose of legislative oversight is to make sure that government programs and policies work for the American people. I don’t see how this investigation of modern art contributes.
Amid criticism of the art sales, the White House Attorney’s Office devised a plan to prevent Hunter or any member of the Biden administration from learning the identities of those who purchased his work. Bergès was ordered to keep the identities of the buyers secret and to reject any offer that seemed suspiciously high.
Comer highlighted the potential for ‘foreign buyers’ to be making purchases.
Comer requested all communications and documents related to the matter and that Bergès appear for a transcribed interview before February 15.
In December, the president’s embattled son attended the Manhattan exhibit of his Haiku series, which featured paintings of colorful flowers and tree-like designs.
It comes amid an ongoing investigation into Hunter’s finances and allegations of illegal dealings in China and Ukraine that remain in the public eye.
Berges said the latest paintings were a form of self-reflection for the president’s son as he is marred by controversy over his laptop and finances.
The House Oversight Committee also requested details about how the White House had crafted the deal with art dealer Georges Bergès, left, to keep the list of buyers anonymous from both the White House and the public.
“Despite being a fledgling artist, Hunter Biden received exorbitant amounts of money from the sale of his artwork, the identities of the buyers remain unknown and you appear to be the only one keeping track of these lucrative transactions,” he wrote. Eat at Bergès.
Berges appears at the opening of the new Hunter Biden show ‘Haiku’ at the Georges Berges Gallery in Soho in New York City
“I think this series is meditative and contemplative, and I think it reflects who he is right now,” Berges added.
During his previous gallery last year, Biden told Artnet: ‘I don’t paint for emotion or feeling, which I think are very ephemeral.
“For me, painting is much more about trying to bring to light what I think is the universal truth…the universal truth is that everything is connected and that there is something that goes far beyond our five senses and that connects us all.
Berges added that all the new paintings have haiku on the back, hence the gallery’s name.
One of those haiku that Berges shared was:
The atoms bloom in my chest
The whole room is full, it’s full.
I can see all the colors
It seemed to break with the standard 5-7-5 syllable structure of a typical haiku.
During a similar gallery show last year, two former White House ethics chiefs warned that buyers might try to gain the president’s influence by buying his son’s work for inflated sums.
“I think that’s absolutely appalling,” Obama’s White House ethics chief Walter Shaub said on Law & Crime’s “Objections” podcast in August.
Richard Painter, George W. Bush’s chief ethics officer, told Fox: ‘It’s going to be very clear with people who know who buys Hunter Biden art.
‘The question is, will the American people know? The White House should insist on full transparency.
The Oversight Committee has focused much of its attention on the Biden family’s business dealings, specifically whether Hunter Biden sold access to foreign officials and to what extent Joe Biden might have been involved.
Fresh scrutiny arose after classified documents were found at President Biden’s home in Wilmington. They had been there since Biden’s time as vice president, and Hunter Biden has listed the address as his own residence in the years since.