Longtime Bard College president Leon Botstein, who has helmed the influential liberal-arts school since 1975, is under fire after the release of email communications with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, that suggest a relationship more personal than had been previously disclosed.
On Monday, the New York Times reported that Botstein had sent Epstein a grateful note regarding a 2012 trip to the Caribbean that he recently claimed not to remember in detail—including whether his visit included time on Epstein’s notorious private island.
David Wade, a spokesman for Botstein, told the Times in a statement last week that his client got very sick and stayed in a bungalow but Botstein did not know if that bungalow was on Epstein’s private island. He wasn’t sure whether the bungalow was on the island.
An email that was recently released by the Department of Justice, however, shows personal correspondence between Botstein and Epstein about that trip. In an email sent on December 23, 2012, with the sender name of “President” and signed “Leon,” Botstein wrote, “I had a great time. The place is great.’” The emails do not clarify if Botstein did visit Epstein’s private island on this trip.
Wade told the Times in a separate statement on Monday that the sentiment in Botstein’s email applied to “the overall environment of St. Thomas, an area which was new to Dr. Botstein.”
Botstein has characterized his communications with Epstein as part of ongoing fundraising efforts for Bard. “There is no way to reaffirm more unequivocally that the only reason I ever communicated with Jeffrey Epstein was in the work of fund-raising for Bard and its programs, particularly in the arts. He wasn’t a friend,” Botstein said in a statement.
But the Times story claims that “previously unreported messages show how the college president gave the convicted felon access to Bard’s orbit, suggesting deeper ties than Dr. Botstein has so far acknowledged.” The newly divulged emails include a message reading “I greatly cherish this new friendship and I have real admiration for how you go about doing things.”
A story published yesterday in the Albany-based Times Union newspaper, which covers the area around Bard, states that “students said they were struggling to understand why Botstein continued to interact with Epstein after June 2008, when the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in Florida. Emails show the men continued to correspond for years after the conviction.”
Founded in 1860, Bard has long been a bastion of liberal-arts education in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Especially significant in the art world is the school’s Center for Curatorial Studies, which has turned out numerous notable curators working in institutions around the world. The school is also home to the CCS Hessel Museum of Art, which includes a collection of over 3,000 objects and has a closely watched exhibition program.
