Torts

Pop Art: The Value of Hunter Biden’s Art Expected to Collapse With the End of his Father’s Influence

We have previously discussed the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s art sales. Many viewed the art as another avenue for political allies to funnel money to the Bidens. That was reinforced when it was discovered that the lucrative sales heralded by Hunter’s allies were found to have been largely the results of purchases by his “sugar bro” Kevin Morris. Now, experts say that whatever value is left in Hunter’s art will likely collapse with his father’s departure — the clearest indicator of the actual value of the art for “investors.” Hunter’s art appears to be moving from an impressionistic to a harsh realism period.

Georges Bergès, Hunter Biden’s art gallerist, contradicted claims of the White House on the handling of the art. Hunter reportedly knew who purchased roughly 70% of the value of his art, including Democrat donors Morris and Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali.

While Biden allies hyped the sales to show that Hunter was a legitimate artist, Bergès admitted that Morris actually purchased most of the art. Morris has reportedly given Hunter millions to cover unpaid taxes and expenses. Hunter only sold paintings to ten people for $1.5 million, according to congressional testimony from 2024. Morris bought 11 works for $875,000 in total.

The drop in the value of art reflects not the volatile art market but the fluctuating influence peddling market. The Bidens are finally cashing out of Washington.

In the meantime, Hunter is facing a bizarre claim from one of his debt holders that, in return for allegedly walking out on over a year of rent, Hunter sent him art made with his own feces to sell. Shaun Maguire claims that Hunter rented his $4.25 million home in California in 2019. When Hunter’s lawyers denied the story, he posted pictures on social media.

Without getting into the merits of this claim, the question is whether Hunter will sue for defamation. I was previously threatened with a defamation lawsuit for discussing the scandal involving Morris. I continued to write about the allegations (and the threat of a lawsuit) but was never sued. It was an example of the scorched Earth approach of the Hunter team. This is such a bizarre story that it is hard to imagine that it could be true. Conversely, Maguire must have known of the litigious reputation of the Biden team when he decided to go public with this claim.

If this story is untrue, it could constitute defamation per se as a statement that impugns his professional and business reputation. A simple testing of the art would tend to establish the truth of the matter. However, there is no indication of any demand for a retraction or notice to sue. Hunter generally has two years for such a lawsuit, but California has a shorter one-year period.

In the meantime, Hunter has pledged to continue to do his art after his father granted him a sweeping pardon for any crimes committed in the last ten years. Given his past excessive spending on a lavish lifestyle, the art alone does not appear to be a viable source of income. However, Morris has helped create a new movie based on his life. Hunter reportedly celebrated the pardon by watching an early showing of the film.

In the end, Hunter’s work may be the ultimate Pop art, work that only holds value so long as Pop is in power.

Of course, if Nietzsche was right that “the essence of all beautiful art…is gratitude,” Hunter has much to be grateful for. For past and prospective buyers, perhaps less so.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

132 thoughts on “Pop Art: The Value of Hunter Biden’s Art Expected to Collapse With the End of his Father’s Influence”

  3. it doesn’t matter.. what is considered ” art” these days is a joke anyway. Taping a banana to a wall is ” art” ????

    1. I want to know what happened to the banana in SpaceX Starship test flight 6? Was that art? Or just a sarcastic expression of banana art?

    2. Are you serious – you called out literally feces? Wish judges would see it for what it is. Some us actually have a feces disability! We are mocked when art buyers toss it. And now so cheaply! If feces art is worth so much – I should be rich! But I’m not I’m instead relegated to my home – not by a ankle monitor but literally can’t be away my toilet. I don’t like people mocking me – who could shit myself any minute – and call it art!

    3. Someone paid 5 M for the thing. I believe they were laundering their money. No one would pay 5 M for something they could do themselves for a dollar seventy-five.

  5. Hunter Biden’s magnificent art is actually still quite valuable. In fact, several of his art works are now going for as much as $1.5 million each. Although Hunter’s art agent is keeping things confidential, word on the street is that Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney, Chrsitpher Wray, Adam Kinzinger, Jaime Raskin, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and many others have expressed a strong interest in purchasing Hunter’s art and they are busy raising funds from the Soros family and certain Hollywood billionaires to buy Hunter’s works.

    Some cynical people have expressed the view that those individuals are only buying the expensive art before December 31 so that they can secure presidential pardons from Joe Biden before he leaves office. However, President Biden reportedly said privately that such claims are “wholly without merit” because if his pardons were for sale, he’d “be asking for a lot more than $1.5 million per art work.”

    1. I was impressed by Hunter Biden’s art – it was not nearly as bad as I expected.
      It also was not good.

      But if you want to pay millions for his art – that is up to you.
      I also do not care if you are buying Trump Sneakers or Bibles.

      AS to Pardon’s – Joe can pardon whoever he wants.

      He can sell pardon’s – and if Congress has issue with that – it can impeach and remove him for selling pardons.

      Personally I HOPE joe goes whole hog on Pardons – the more the merrier and the worse the Democratic party looks.

  6. Rather than purporting to conceal who was buying Hunter’s art, it would have been much more honest to demand that the buyers openly identify themselves and how much they were paying.

  7. Hunter’s painting will soon be available at your local Goodwill amd Habitat for Humanity Restore stores.

  8. I will always believe the money these folks paid for his art, as well as attorneys’ fees and IRS taxes paid…really came from Hunter himself via clandestine transfers of his ill-gotten, but well-hidden gains.

  9. In the wake of legal action the value of Hunter’s art will decline has precipitously as did the syndication value of The Cosby Show, because, in the public’s eye, they are both permanently stained by disgrace.

    1. Great, another destroyed nation with terrorists now in charge. Bibi can support them like he did Hamas, I’m sure, with our money.

      1. “Great, another destroyed nation with terrorists now in charge.”

        Meh. Syria has hardly been a boon to US interests for the past several decades (or more), and both Basher,and his nitwit son, Half-A$$, have had their share of ties to terrorists. Trump is right: while heads of Deep State clandestine agencies love to play one foreign regime against another to amuse themselves and justify their agencies’ existence, Syria is no friend to the US, and if we do have any vital interests there, that is the fault of those agencies (and the government that is charged with supervising them), which should never have been allowed to create that situation. The solution is to castrate and disembowel the Deep State, and kick it and its minions into the gutter to rot.

        1. Oops, swapped ’em. Half-A$$ was the daddy, Basher the son. Lysdexia for cure have found I 😉

      2. @Shakdi: Bibi is historically and presently among the staunchest voices against Hamas. You lie. If you were educated on the subject you would provide evidence, but, as before, you can’t. You have an argument based on prejudice, not reality.

  11. Turley wants to talk about money buying influence and postulates that those who purchased Hunter’s paintings were really buying influence— but he doesn’t cite any evidence. Here’s what’s not speculative—Elon Musk, who has billions of dollars in government contracts right now and who wants more, gave Trump $250 million. He also set up some kind of anonymous slush fund. Now he’s the de facto Vice President, lobbying Senators to ignore the scandals involving Hegseth and Gabbard, and traveling to Paris for the re-dedication of Notre Dame. That’s just the stuff that is public —who knows what’s going on behind the scenes. Because he has very lucrative contracts with the government, he has no business playing any role in government business. It’s a clear conflict of interest, but Turley chooses to speculate about the value of Hunter’s art work and influence peddling, without any evidence, while ignoring actual conflicts of interest involving Musk. Gotta keep the disciples believing.

    1. Gigi
      Turley cites OBVIOUS evidence.
      It is nearly inconceivable that someone who never had any ties to art before and no artistic education would suddenly be producing works that are selling for 6 figures.

      Is it possible ? Certainly stranger things have happened.

      But it is HIGHLY unlikely. The EVIDENCE that this is part and parcel of the Biden influence pedally scheme is self evident.

      It is not hidden it is right in your face – just as the Clintons use of a charity to launder hundreds of millions in graft to the Clintons and those politically connected with them.

      Are the above PROOF beyond a reasonable doubt – I hope not. But given the success that left wing nut prosecutors have had at getting left wing juries to buy absolute garbage in so many different instances I have no doubt that the evidence against Hunter and that against Clinton would be MORE than enough to convict Trump if he had done the same things.

      Regardless, my point is that those of you on the left CONSTANTLY can not deal with anything that is not absolute or black and white.

      There is LOTS of Evidence of LOTS of Criminal shenanigans by Hunter, Joe, the Clintons, Fauxi, Miley, Nuland, Bratt and a whole host of others – start with everyone that Biden is purportedly discussing pre-emptively pardoning.

      You are free to say that evidence does not in your OPINION constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
      Just as I am many others can conclude that it does.

      It would really be nice if so many – like you were not so poor at critical thinking that a jury of 12 of us anywhere in the country could evaluate the same same evidence and consistently reach the same conclusions.

      I would suggest that a first step would be Alan Derschowitz’s shoe test.

      If Paul Manafort was selling his Art for 6 figures to pay off his tax evasion debts – would YOU be crying foul or would you be saying there i sno evidence ?

      We can Trust YOUR conclusions, we can trust YOU on a jury, or your opinions on this blog when similar fact patterns result in YOU reaching the same conclusions regardless of the politics.

      If in your view the evidence i never enough to hold accountable – even by the lowest standards where the punishment is public oprobrium anyone on the left, and the evidence is never too weak to jail those on the right.
      Then YOU are the problem.

      Self Government is not possible when a significant portion of the general population places politics over the blind application of the law. 9

      1. In a world where a banana taped to a blank canvas sells for $6 million, who knows?

        But yeah, Hunter’s paintings weren’t good and they likely sold for more than $10 because the purchasers wanted to support the Biden family for some reason, or wanted something from them. They may have some small value as novelties for their notoriety.

      2. WHAT INFLUENCE WAS PEDDLED? What was the quid-pro-quo? Where’s proof JOE Biden received any benefit or conferred any favors, and WHO received the favors? There’s no proof of any of this. Just because you think Hunter Biden’s art work isn’t worth what was paid for it (and you may or may not be right because art is in the eye of the beholder) does not prove influence was peddled. And, there IS proof that American oligarch Elon Musk gave Trump $250 billion and has been parading in front of cameras, trying to influence Senators to vote for Trump’s conflicted and unqualified nominees, traveling to Notre Dame to rub elbows with world leaders, pretending to be representing the United States and has been appointed head of a nonexistent government agency. Musk promises to trim trillions without even studying the budgets of the various agencies.
        As Senator Amy Klobuchar pointed out in an interview yesterday, people who work at various government agencies have lots of suggestions for how to save money–why not ask them first how to trim waste and streamline things instead of promising to fire half the federal work force? The majority of our budget goes for defense and entitlements like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. AND, there’s no dispute whatsoever that Musk does billions of dollars worth of business with the US and wants to do more–so–what? Does he cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, so as to free up more cash for his own benefit? That is a classic conflict of interest. We’ve never seen anything like this before in our history–a rich person giving massive amounts of money to a presidential candidate and then being treated like he’s the de facto Vice President, appearing at international events, lobbying Senators.

        2. In other words, you must have a blazing inferno in front of some people or they vigorously ignore the copious amount of smoke billowing from the building where the apparent fire may or may not be under way.

        3. The value of Hunter’s painting depends on whether your trash service charges by weight or volume.

      3. Do you understand Morris’ motivation? Was he involved in government contracts or grants, or does he simply have too much money?

      4. If I overpay for an art object, am I making a gift? If so, do I owe a gift tax?

    3. At least with the money Elon received, there is plenty to show for it;
      Tesla
      SpaceX
      STARLINK

    4. Maybe when he writes an article about Musk he’ll bring that up. This article is about Hunter though

    5. If the US Government wasn’t getting fair value from entering these contracts I might agree with you. However, it seems that Elon’s companies are delivering the goods, and we the people are the beneficiaries.

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