The latest batch of documents released by the Department of Justice as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act includes references to two leading art collectors, Steve Tisch and Jean Pigozzi. The DOJ’s library of documents have been added to over the past several days, with the latest update occurring on Saturday, January 31.
The documents, primarily in the form of emails sent around 2013, appear to show convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein connecting Tisch, a film producer and co-owner of the New York Giants, with multiple women. The news was first reported on by the Athletic.
In one email chain, from April 2013, which has the subject line “Ukrainian Girl,” Tisch asks Epstein if he knows any information about his “assistant’s friend,” who he recently had lunch with. Epstein replied that he “will get all the info,” with Tisch later saying “pro or civilian?” Epstein replies at one point, “civilian, but Russian, and rarely tells the full truth, but fun.”
In a different set of emails, from May 1, 2013, Tisch and Epstein correspond about meeting up that evening. At one point, Tisch writes, “Can I expect ‘trouble’?” Epstein replies, “I can invite the russian [redacted] to meet if you like?” Tisch writes back, “Is she fun?” Later in the chain, Epstein writes, “she is free after 1030 she said, you can meet her, you can come over first.”
In an email chain from May 15–16, 2013, Tisch asks a woman whose name has been redacted if she would be interested in meeting in Boston. Tisch doesn’t receive a reply and forwards the correspondence to Epstein, who replies, “she is traveling. not sure when she returns to florida. she is a micro biology major and is still in university, so i doubt that she could travel during the week, but we’ll see. you should also make it clear that you will orgaznie her ticket.” Tisch later writes back, “Never heard back from her / Oh well…”
In a 2017 email chain, Tisch writes to Epstein, asking how he is and that he hopes Epstein is “having a great Summer.” Epstein replied, “Come visit.” Other documents point to Tisch inviting Epstein to Giants games as well as other meetings over meals.
In a statement sent to the Athletic about his affiliations with Epstein, Tisch said, “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments. I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Tisch is also a major collector of contemporary art, having appeared on ARTnews’s Top 200 Collectors list from 2016 to 2024. A 2016 New York Times article revealed that he had created a 4,5000-square-foot private museum to host his collection in the backyard of his Los Angeles home. Michael Govan, the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Tisch is a trustee, curated the initial hang. In 2011, he also donated funds to help LACMA acquire Christian Marclay’s 24-hour video work The Clock (2010).
Pigozzi’s connections to Epstein are currently circulating online via a 2009 email between Epstein and publicist Peggy Siegal, in which Siegal writes, “Just left Ghislaine’s townhouse…after party for film. Bill Clinton and Jeff Bezos were there…Jean Pigozzi, director Mira Nair…etc.”
The correspondence, also made in 2013, between Epstein and Pigozzi ranges from emails in which Pigozzi asks if Epstein is planning to visit the south of France that summer to emails where the discuss the appearance of different women. In the latter email chain, Pigozzi wrote, “I like the red head. Seem fun and smart.” Epstein replied, “german jew.” Pigozzi then replied, “I like her / No tits. Small problem / Did Leon like her ?” (Pigozzi appears to be referring to fellow art collector Leon Black, whose connections to Epstein have been well documented.)
In another email chain, Pigozzi responds to an email from Epstein in which he sent an image (the image is not reproduced in the file): “Looks amazing / Can’t see any girls ???”
The documents also include a 2010 email chain between Pigozzi and “Gmax,” most likely Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021. “Gmax” asks Pigozzi if he is planning to sell his properties in Panama and France, adding “If so price. Have potential interested party”; Pigozzi asks for a phone call before writing that the France property is 22.5 acres and that it “MUST BE OVER EURO 300M,” while for the Panama property, his asking price would be “OVER $ 150 M JUST THE ISLAND 270 ACRES.”
In a phone call, Pigozzi told ARTnews that he did not remember any correspondence between him and Epstein about a “red head.” Regarding the prices for his Panama and France properties, he said he was not interested in selling it at the time, adding “I gave him some ridiculous price.”
Of his connections with Epstein, Pigozzi said, “I never had anything to do with him and girls. Zero. Nothing. I also regret that I met him and Ghislaine.”
Pigozzi told ARTnews that he found his work in the art world a more interesting topic of conversation than “these stupid emails. I don’t find it so fascinating.” Pigozzi is a major collector of African art, with a focus on photography from the continent. He first started collecting in 1989 after seeing the Centre Pompidou’s influential “Magiciens de la Terre” exhibition that year.
In the decades since, he has amassed thousands of works from more than 160 artists from 22 sub-Saharan African countries, according to the collection’s website. The collection is currently based in Geneva but does not have a permanent exhibition space, though he told ARTnews he is currently at work building a space in Cannes.
In 2019, Pigozzi donated 45 works of contemporary African art to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The gift included pieces by Seydou Keïta, Romuald Hazoumè, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Moké, Chéri Samba, Ambroise Ngaimoko/Studio 3Z, and Frédéric Bruly Bouabré. At the time, MoMA called the donation “transformative” as it would make the museum “a unique institutional leader in this aspect of contemporary African art.”
Pigozzi’s holdings include dozens of photographs by Keïta, many of which are currently on view in a survey of the late photographer’s work at the Brooklyn Museum. The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection is specifically thanked in the exhibition’s credits.
