Hunter Biden has sold more than $1.5 million in artwork, thanks largely to purchases from two donors to his father, President Joe Biden, according to the first son’s former gallerist.
George Berges told House investigators in closed-door testimony last week that a majority of the sales from Hunter Biden’s artwork came from these two buyers, according to a transcript reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
Berges said that Elizabeth Naftali spent nearly $100,000 on two pieces of Hunter Biden’s artwork. She purchased her first piece on Feb. 17, 2021, shortly after Joe Biden took office, and, less than five months later, was appointed by Joe Biden to a plum position on a little-known but prestigious panel called the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. She purchased the second piece in December that year.
Kevin Morris, an entertainment lawyer, spent $875,000 on Hunter Biden’s art, purchasing it from Berges over the phone through an entity called Kuliaky Art on Jan. 19, 2023, according to Berges.
Naftali and Morris are both prominent Democratic donors and each contributed thousands toward electing Joe Biden in 2020, according to federal election data.
Berges said Morris had seen Hunter Biden’s artwork before at an exhibit, and that he and Morris would later negotiate one lump sum for 11 pieces of artwork. The art gallerist said that the arrangement was unusual, however, because Morris only paid Berges a portion of the $875,000 for commission and said that the rest of the money owed to Hunter Biden from the sale would actually be put toward a debt the first son owed Morris.
“He had to have known that [Morris] was the buyer because normally the gallery would then write a check for the artist commission but I didn’t. So I just got paid for my portion, for the gallery’s portion, and they — they negotiated there,” Berges said.
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