Hunter’s art auction creates ethical quagmire

Washington:  The White House says it has created a system that will allow the president’s son, Hunter Biden, to sell his artwork without knowing the name of the buyers to prevent anyone from trying to curry favor by purchasing a painting during a planned auction this fall in New York. But former Obama ethics chief Walter Shaub called the arrangement “preposterous and very disappointing.”

Hunter has pursued art recently after writing a memoir about his struggles with substance abuse. He is also currently under investigation by the Department of Justice regarding his business dealings with China and other matters, although he maintains his innocence.

The art arrangement will have Georges Bergès, the owner of the NYC gallery hosting the auction, setting the prices, receiving all bids and selecting buyers. Bergès will also be responsible for keeping buyer information anonymous from both Hunter Biden and the White House and for denying sales to suspicious buyers and buyers who offer above asking price. He believes the painting will sell from $75,000 to $500,000 apiece.

But Shaub, who served as director of the Office of Government Ethics under Obama, said that even with these safeguards in place, there’s no way to ensure shady deals don’t get made, starting with the prices the paintings are expected to fetch.

The New York Times has reported Hunter is using painting as therapy as he lives in  Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. You can see in his paintings twisting faces and organs, warm yellows to melancholy blues and angry reds — morphing shapes within shapes. He uses alcohol ink repeatedly on Japanese Yupo paper, blowing  the ink with a metal straw.

Image courtesy of (Photo courtesy ABC News)

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