You know those ChiComs: if they’re anything, they’re great patrons of the arts — just think of those huge posters of Mao. And so it would be no surprise if they turned out to be fans of the noted painter who has been called “one of the most consequential artists in this century.” And why not? If they can buy access to and possibly even influence over the putative president of the United States for a mere $85,000, why not shoot the Struggling Artist a little coke money?
Just The News reported that “House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Monday suggested that some of first son Hunter Biden’s paintings may have made their way to China.” Why, who could possibly have guessed that the ever-resourceful Chinese government would spot an opportunity to use Old Joe Biden like a marionette, and hurry to take advantage? Comer said, “We fear that some of these paintings and some of those high dollar pieces of art went to China as well.”
The ”as well” may have been in reference to the other principal bit of information we know about who is buying Hunter’s paintings, which have been going for as much as $500,000 and generally for between $55,000 and $225,000 each. (Compare that to the fact that in 2021, a painting by one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso, sold for $150,000.) The one buyer whose name we have happens to be Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, whom Business Insider describes as a “significant Democratic donor who has given $13,414 to the Biden campaign and $29,700 to the Democratic National Campaign Committee this year. In 2022, she hosted a fundraiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris.” In July 2022, Old Joe gave Hirsh Naftali a plum appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
Quid pro Joe? Come on, man! It’s just a total coincidence that the alleged president gave a fan of his son’s art an appointment, right? Comer wasn’t buying and said, “Every American should be insulted by Joe Biden thinking that they’re just gonna believe that no special interest or no foreign nationals are the buyers of that artwork. Of course, people who buy that crappy artwork from the president’s son are doing it to receive a benefit. There’s no — of course they are. And that’s further evidence. And I think you’re gonna see more evidence.”
Comer is right. It’s an insult to the American people, and a manifestation of the contempt Old Joe and Hunter have for us, that they would have thought for a second that anyone would buy the story that this crackhead who has never accomplished anything in his life would suddenly become one of the nation’s most successful artists. It was obvious influence-peddling from the get-go. It’s a sign of the profound illness in our body politic that the media wasn’t heaping contempt on Old Joe and the son of whom he is so proud for claiming that he was a high-dollar artist in the first place, and asking probing questions accordingly.
Related: First Clear Evidence Emerges That Hunter Biden’s Artistic Career Is Just Influence Peddling
Just The News adds that Comer “did not elaborate specifically in terms of possible purchasers beyond expressing fears that some art ‘went to China,’ though the first son has long faced scrutiny over a deal with now-defunct Chinese energy company CEFC.” It would be more of a surprise if none of Hunter’s art were lining bird cages in Beijing and Shanghai today than if it were: why would the ChiComs pass up on an obvious opportunity to gain more leverage in the Oval Office?
Comer also “suggested that the owner of the gallery could have come forward with exculpatory details about the sales to assuage concerns about their legitimacy.” He said, “If they were legitimate art buyers, I think the art gallery owner would have already defended his good name and admitted that.” Indeed. The gallery in question is the George Bergès Gallery in New York, which proudly lists Hunter Biden as one of “our artists.” It was George Bergès who called Hunter “one of the most consequential artists in this century.” Isn’t Bergès embarrassed? Or does he have a few hundred thousand reasons not to be? Doesn’t anyone in the art world look askance at this shameless and open corruption? Or do the patrons of high art all love Old Joe so uncritically that they don’t mind that what is supposed to be a serious art gallery has been turned into an influence-peddling operation?
Maybe we’ll get the answers to all these questions someday. But they’re more likely to come from the ChiComs themselves than from our establishment media.
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