"What do you need that information for?"
Posted on 08/11/2021 1:50:27 PM PDT by dynachrome
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that she’s “not aware” of any plans for President Biden and first lady Jill Biden to attend an upcoming New York gallery event with potential buyers of his son Hunter Biden’s artworks.
The first son is asking as much as $500,000 for his novice pieces, which ethics experts say are inflated prices based on his dad’s official position.
“I’m not aware of plans for them to attend,” Psaki said at her daily press briefing.
The question came from New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs, who noted that the gallerist “tasked with ensuring the buyers of Hunter Biden’s artwork remain anonymous — he said that Hunter will be attending his opening next month and said that friends and family will be attending as well.”
Hunter Biden often is accused of profiting from his father’s official roles, including while he was vice president.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Joe is phoning in his bids.
Joe is noting the winning bids. Guessing: winners will likely get a certificate of authenticity and a phone number to submit “comissions.”
In-your-face bribery.
And there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.
What’s the Big Guy’s cut?
Standard 10%?
Joe should go. He may not be into line of coke like Hunter. But there should be plenty of underaged girls to sniff and grope.
Guess he doesn’t want to meet the president
Yup, I give it a 50/50 chance that one of Hunter’s paintings will be hanging in the WH soon
The fraud in the art world goes on 24/7.
Jack Nicholson is a big timer in La La Land, but even he can be duped.
Tod Michael Volpe, a well-known Manhattan art dealer, built a reputation in the 90s advising Hollywood celebrities on how to build their art collections. Nicholson provided $610,000 to the investment fund, which would buy and sell artwork and split the profits. In 1998, Volpe received a 28-month prison for defrauding his clients of more than $1.9 million.
cnbc.com
Think you can spot a fraud? This $80 million art scam fooled the experts
PUBLISHED FRI, AUG 17 2018 by Scott Cohn
Art lovers need to take a scientific approach to avoid buying fakes.
The biggest art fraud in modern U.S. history was shockingly simple. Yet it went on for 15 years, duped some of the world’s most sophisticated collectors, brought down a 165-year-old New York gallery, and brought in more than $80 million. It is also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of dabbling in the art world.
“Art and jewelry are the last sort of bastions of unregulated business,” retired special agent Meridith Savona of the FBI’s Art Crimes Unit said in an interview with CNBC’s “American Greed.” “If you’re a collector, if you’re in this art world, it truly is buyer beware.”
Glafira Rosales first appeared on the New York art scene in 1995, showing up at the venerable Knoedler Gallery with a painting that she claimed was the work of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. And Rosales said there was more where that painting came from. Claiming to represent a mysterious Mexican collector known only as Mr. X, she said she was helping him unload a collection of previously unknown works by Rothko and fellow expressionists Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock, among others. If true, it would be a treasure trove of modern art.
“This art is some of the most valued art of the 20th century,” said author Maria Konnikova, who wrote about the scam in her 2016 book “The Confidence Game.” “People paid tens of millions of dollars for it, and we haven’t had anything new in it for a while.”
But in fact, the art Rosales was peddling was the work of Chinese immigrant Pei-Shen Qian, who had previously made his living hawking portraits on the streets of Manhattan. Qian would imitate the styles of the masters, then “age” his work using substances like tea or dirt from a vacuum cleaner. It worked like a charm, with one purported Rothko abstract selling for $8.3 million, and a fake Jackson Pollock painting selling for $17 million, before art experts began to realize something was amiss.
In 2013, Rosales pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, and was ordered to forfeit $81 million. To date, she is the only person convicted in the case. Rosales, who cooperated with authorities and was sentenced to the three months she had already served in jail, said she was coerced into the scam by an abusive boyfriend, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz. He is currently in Spain, having managed to avoid extradition to the U.S. on a 12-count federal indictment alleging fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and false statements. Also indicted were his brother Jesus, who is also believed to be in Spain, and Qian, who fled to China.
The Knoedler Gallery and its director, Ann Freedman, who said they were duped along with everyone else, have not been charged with wrongdoing. But facing multiple customer lawsuits, the gallery closed in 2011 after 165 years in business.
Investor beware
“If you enter into buying a work of art because you think it’s going to be a phenomenal investment, that’s a warning sign,” Art Fiduciary Advisors managing partner Doug Woodham told “American Greed.” “Stop, stop, stop!”
He said the Rosales case is an example — albeit an extreme one — of the perils facing art collectors and investors at all levels of experience.
“When you’re thinking about buying a work of art, I think the first thing you have to do is say, ‘What’s the price of this relative to my income or wealth position and how comfortable would I be if this work of art ended up not being worth nearly as much as I paid for it?’,” he said.
“If this work of art is $10,000, if in five years it was worth $5,000 or zero, how are you going to feel?”
If you are still ready to take the plunge into the art world, Woodham offers some tips.
Know your seller
“For a lot of people who are buying art, it’s a hobby, it’s a passion sport, it’s something that they haven’t done before and so oftentimes, people let their guard down,” Woodham said.
He said it is important to know whom you are buying from. Large, established art galleries may be your safest bet.
“If you buy something from that gallery and it turns out to be a fake, or you’d like to return it and get a store credit, will that gallery be in a financial position to be able to do that? The smaller the firm, oftentimes the harder it is for them to provide those sorts of buyer protections,” he said. “The larger the gallery, the easier it is for them to do that.”
Of course, there was no gallery more established than Knoedler, which went into business in 1846. That is why Woodham suggests adding language to any purchase agreement to protect your rights should the art turn out to be fake.
“Try to get the gallery to agree that when you purchase the work of art that they’re not in possession of any information that would call into question the authenticity of the work,” he said. “Fraud doesn’t have a statute of limitations. So, it’s so important, when you’re spending serious money, that you can put into a purchase agreement just a simple statement: ‘The gallery is not in possession of any information that would call into question the authenticity of this painting.’”
If the seller will not agree to the language, that could be a red flag.
Woodham cautioned against buying art from a sole proprietor, or from a friend.
“Separate your personal relationship with them from the commercial transaction you’re entering into,” he said.
Anonymous here does not mean that the Bidens don't know who they are, it means that the public won't. Big difference.
Any art student can recognize several art genres and techniques that took accomplished artists years to develop.
Picasso didn’t start with Cubism.........he went through several periods Before he developed his Cubism technique.
Many might question how neophyte Hunter developed the control to execute works in so many different genres in such a short time.
“neophyte Hunter developed the control to execute works in so many different genres”
Paint by numbers is easy.
.....Lol........
We need to get the gallery to affirm that they’re not in possession of any information that would call into question the authenticity of the work.
...............................................
When you’re spending serious money, get into a purchase agreement a simple statement: ‘The gallery is not in possession of any information that would call into question the authenticity of this painting.’
Comedy gold. It should be a meme!
We need to get the gallery to affirm that they’re not in possession of any information that would call into question the authenticity of Hunters works.
Judicial Watch
425 Third Street SW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20024
1-888-JW-Ethic (1-888-593-8442)
Email: info@judicialwatch.org
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.