A trove of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, newly released by the House Oversight Committee this week, revealed an exchange between the deceased sex offender and artist-provocateur Andres Serrano.
On October 10, 2016, less than a month before Donald Trump was elected to the presidency for the first time, Serrano discussed his voting intentions with Epstein.
“I was prepared to vote against Trump for all the right reasons,” Serrano wrote to Epstein. “But I’m so disgusted by the outrage over ‘grab them by the pussy’ that I may give him my sympathy vote.”
Serrano has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment through a publicist and direct channels.
Serrano, born in New York, rose to prominence in the late 1980s for “Piss Christ” (1987), a photograph of a crucifix that he submerged in his own urine that was included in an exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The work upset conservative evangelists and members of Congress. He’d described the work as exploring “being drawn to Christ yet resisting organized religion.”
Epstein posed in a portrait for Serrano in 2019, more than a decade after he was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor and only months before the disgraced former financier was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial. Serrano also photographed Trump in 2004.
In 2019, the artist displayed his collection of 1,000 Trump memorabilia items at a gallery in Chelsea in the installation The Game: All Things Trump. Earlier this year, Serrano proposed a Trump altar for the United States pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the same title.
In July, when Hyperallergic asked Serrano through a publicist if he thought his Trump pavilion proposal met the State Department’s criteria of “non-political” character for the Biennale competition, he replied in a statement, “Of course, I’m not political. I don’t judge, I observe.”
Though couched in the language of satire, Serrano’s artworks and public statements have often veered into offensive territory. Grantmakers for the Arts in 2022 labeled a recorded keynote address by Serrano with a content warning: “We acknowledge that some viewers may find Andres Serrano’s remarks hurtful and harmful. While Grantmakers in the Arts respects Serrano’s artistry, we do not endorse the views or tenor of his keynote remarks.”
The most recent trove of the so-called Epstein files sheds further light on Epstein’s art dealings and connections within the art world.
In one conversation, Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff discussed the provenance of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which became the most expensive painting sold at auction when it fetched $450.3 million at Christie’s in 2017. It was consigned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev and reportedly purchased by Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, believed to be a proxy buyer for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman; the work’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
“Is it a coincidence that the Russian who bought the house in Palm Beach and knows all, is the same guy who sold a painting last year to mbs for 450 million dollars,” wrote Epstein, according to the email exchange, referring to Rybolovlev, who purchased a Florida home once owned by Trump. “That was only worth 1.5m?”
“So MBS was paying him off? Why? Ideas?” Wolff pressed.
“reminder trump overuled congress on yemen,” Epstein responded, before adding that his “art guyd [sic] said the painting wasn’t very good.”
Hyperallergic has contacted Wolff for comment on the conversation.
In other emails from February 2017, Epstein discussed acquiring works from artists in Los Angeles and Berlin with an individual, Etienne Binant, who appeared to be advising him on collecting pieces. In one exchange, Binant assures Epstein that they “never had the intention to go to any art fair or art show of anything of the kind” and promises to take Epstein only to artists’ studios or homes.
When Binant asked if they were “still on,” Epstein wrote: “yes, lets [sic] start. . yes we are on. sorry with trump around it been very crazy busy.”
Hyperallergic has attempted to reach Etienne Binant for comment.
