WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden insisted on knowing the identities of who was buying his art when he began selling his work, an “unusual” directive that was later retracted, his gallery director told House investigators, according to a transcript of the interview reviewed by NBC News.
Hunter Biden was the only artist represented by George Bergès to make that demand, Bergès testified to the House Oversight and Judiciary committees before the stipulation was rolled back in September 2021 after months of public scrutiny. His testimony came as part of House Republicans’ inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Bergès said there was never any conversation with his buyers about political favors from the president or the White House.
The timeline for the shift raises questions about the Biden White House’s statements about ethics safeguards surrounding the sales, which had attracted the attention of art world insiders and good governance experts. It also counters statements by the White House that Hunter Biden does not know the identities of his collectors.
Bergès said he was “surprised” by a report in the summer of 2021 claiming that “White House officials [had] helped craft an agreement” that would create a firewall between Hunter Biden and his buyers, having never spoken to the White House.
Joe Biden’s press secretary at the time, Jen Psaki, described a “system” that would allow Hunter Biden to sell his work “within reasonable safeguards,” telling reporters, “He will not know, we will not know who purchases his art.” Psaki, now the host of “Inside with Jen Psaki” on MSNBC, later clarified that it was not the White House itself that helped create the arrangement.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The interview with Bergès raises new questions about Hunter Biden’s art sales as a potential vehicle for him to pay off debts owed to Kevin Morris, a Hollywood attorney. NBC News reported that Morris began advising Biden in 2020 before he arranged to pay $2 million in outstanding tax obligations to the IRS on his behalf.
Describing the deal with Morris, Bergès said Biden would have had to discuss the terms of the sale with his friend before the deal was made. “I think they had an arrangement. … He had to have known that he was the buyer, because normally the gallery would then write a check for the artist commission, but I didn’t,” Bergès told investigators.
After the agreement was revised, Bergès said, nothing would have prevented buyers from informing Biden that they had purchased pieces.
Bergès said that he no longer represents Biden but that they remain close and talk several times a week, with Bergès at one point describing him as “one of my best friends.”
Morris, who purchased $875,000 worth of Biden’s art through a business entity in January 2023, paid the gallery director a 40% commission while planning to resolve the balance with Biden directly, Bergès testified.
He described Morris as Biden’s largest collector.
Bergès told Congress that he did not know whether the gallery had provided Biden with the tax documentation to reflect the $525,000 payment from Morris. He also recalled seeing a piece of art in Morris’ home that the gallery director had not sold, indicating that Morris had obtained it elsewhere, perhaps from Biden directly.
In a letter last week to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., Morris’ attorney said Morris had not decided how to pay for Biden’s artwork. He is still considering either a direct payment or a write-down of the loans, and that will depend on his tax advisers’ advice, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.
Biden last week pleaded not guilty to nine tax-related charges, including three felony counts, related to his business dealings from 2016 to 2020.
Bergès said another buyer known to Biden was Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a prominent Democratic donor who received a White House appointment last year. She is the great aunt of 4-year-old Abigail Eden, the first American hostage freed by Hamas after Oct. 7 in a prisoner exchange.
Though Bergès was introduced to Hirsh Naftali and began working to sell Biden’s artwork to her in 2019, it was not until the weeks after Joe Biden was inaugurated that she made her first purchase in February 2021. In December 2022, Hirsh Naftali purchased a second piece of Hunter Biden’s artwork after having attended one of his art exhibitions, buying $94,000 worth of his art.
In a letter to Congress last year, Hirsh Naftali’s attorney said that she did “nothing wrong,” that her White House appointment to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad was not connected to her purchase of the artwork and that the appointment came at the recommendation of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Bergès said Biden learned of her identity through news reports.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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