As his single-term presidency winds to a close, U.S. President Joseph Biden shocked many with news on December 1 that he has granted his son Hunter a full and unconditional pardon, waiving any potential punishment stemming from a federal conviction for illegally buying a gun and for tax evasion charges.
Adding fuel to the move, it marks a stark reversal for President Biden, who repeatedly insisted in the past that he would not pardon his son, when asked point blank by journalists and others if he would respect and accept the final decision of courts.
In early September, Hunter pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to a nine-count indictment, including three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. He was due to be sentenced on December 16.
In announcing the news yesterday, President Biden said that he did so because the charges were politically driven, according to the New York Times. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son—and that is wrong,” read his statement.
Hunter Biden has often been at the center of controversy as a result of his well-documented struggles with addiction, romantic relationships that have served as tabloid fodder, and questionable business ties. His fine art career, begun in recent years, has similarly been dogged by debate: a 2021 solo show at Soho-based Georges Bergès Gallery, for one, sparked questions about whether buyers of the artist’s works should be outed for transparency reasons.
In a 2021 interview with Artnet columnist Katya Kazakina, Hunter said of his father: “My dad loves everything that I do, and so, I’ll leave it at that.” Her column at the time focused solely on his art, at his request.
Though Hunter has no formal art training, he has been making art since he was a young child. His practice eventually took on a more formal turn until he was working on art full time. In addition to establishing a close business relationship with Bergès—who organized a private viewing of Hunter’s works in 2021, followed by the New York exhibition—he developed a collector base. Prices for his art ranged from $75,000 for works on paper to $500,000 for large-scale paintings, Bergès said at the time.
Hunter’s artist page listing on the gallery’s website reads: “A lawyer by profession, Hunter Biden now devotes his energy to the creative arts, bringing innumerable experiences to bear in his works. The results are powerful and impactful paintings ranging in theme from the photogenic to abstraction. His chosen substrates are canvas, YUPO paper, wood, and metal on which he affixes oil, acrylic, and ink along with the written word, coming together to create a unique, signature visual image.”
While Hunter’s solo New York showcase generated art-world buzz, according to Kazakina’s report, it also served as a target. Bergès reportedly received death threats and the gallery was vandalized that summer, ahead of the show.
The outing further raised concerns that lobbyists, foreign officials, and others with ulterior motives might attempt to buy Hunter’s works solely to gain access or favor with the White House. In an effort to avoid this, the White House noted that the gallery would keep collectors’ identities confidential, even from Hunter himself—a claim later contradicted by a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability report, released in January 2024, that found the younger Biden did know who purchased his art.
Earlier, in 2023, the identities of at least two buyers were revealed. Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and real estate investor is a Democratic donor who gave $13,414 to President Biden’s 2020 campaign and was later named Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Her appointment came in 2022, roughly eight months after the Bergès gallery show.
The other known Biden collector was Kevin Morris, a Los Angeles lawyer who had also helped the artist financially, lending him some $2 million to pay off his taxes. (Biden pleaded guilty in June 2023 to two tax misdemeanors.)
According to the New York Times, Hunter Biden has issued his own statement about the pardon, saying: “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction—mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport. I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
Bergès gallery did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the news of the pardon.
