Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina The New York City gallery exhibiting HUNTER BIDEN’s work this fall has estimated his paintings are worth between $75,000 to $500,000. We are not artists. We are pretty bad at it, actually, so we wanted to ask some experts if Biden’s work is actually worth that amount — and if it’s any good. West Wing Playbook spoke to four art critics and academics, some of whom said Hunter’s work, itself, isn’t half-bad. But as to our first question, it was a resounding, “no.” Despite the Biden White House’s attempts to protect against undue influence, they say the reason for the five- to six-figure estimates is clearly Hunter Biden’s last name. According to the George Bergès Gallery, Biden’s paintings “range from photographic to mixed-media to abstract works on canvas, yupo paper, wood, and metal. He incorporates oil, acrylic, ink, and the written word to create unique experiences that have become his signature.” There are 11 paintings online, including an untitled one on yupo paper — a type of recyclable tree-free synthetic paper — of what appears to be a dragon breathing fire. “Way better than I thot [sic] they’d be! More particular. Some sustained attention clearly evident.” That’s how GEOFFREY YOUNG, a New York poet, art critic and curator described the younger Biden’s art to West Wing Playbook in an email. As for the price range, Young said it is extremely high, especially for someone the New York Times recently called an “undiscovered artist.” The 2019 article described some 100 paintings Biden had created in his Hollywood Hills “poolhouse-turned-art studio.” “Traditionally, young artists are a bargain, and if they begin to sustain a career, gallerists raise the prices incrementally, as they should,” Young said. “Paintings are only as valuable as what some customer will pay for ‘em…he’s complexly famous, but not yet for art. Guess people will pay for a known last name.” BEN DAVIS, a national art critic who has already written in length that Biden shouldn’t be selling his work, said the prices are not common for any new artist. “For an emerging artist doing his first show, this would put Hunter Biden in the top, top tier of what was thinkable,” Davis said. “These are prices for an already successful artist.” Davis gave us some context. Artists like DANA SCHUTZ, ALICE NEEL and STANLEY WHITNEY, all well-known and successful artists, have recently sold their art for around $500,000. “So that is the company that Hunter Biden’s art, which no one has seen, is keeping,” Davis said. “There is a lot of bluff and bluster and marketing in art prices. Dealers lie about them all the time to inflate values, and George Bergès may be bluffing and talking up Biden's prices,” Davis said. “There's no science to such things. But it is absolutely, 100 percent certain that what is being sold is the Biden name and story.” Others agreed the high price point correlates with the family name. “You’re paying for the brush with fame,” JOHN PLOFF, an art professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said. “That’s like a campaign contribution, right?” In an effort to protect against conflict of interest, the White House says there is an agreement in place with the gallery that will keep the art buyers’ identities a secret from Hunter, the president, the White House and the public. They did not have anything further to add for this piece. “In the case of anyone who has a celebrity name outside of art, as with Hunter Biden, it's clearly the name of the artist that's driving the price and if it sells, then that's probably also the motivating factor for the person who buys it,” said TABISH KHAN, a London art critic. Khan said he wouldn’t critique work he hasn’t seen in person, with limited knowledge of the work, but, “an initial online glance suggests there's nothing new or challenging about his work.” “As to whether I think it's worth the asking price, I don't think I'll ever spend that much money on a work of art nor be in a position where I have that amount of cash in hand,” Khan said. “And if I did, I wouldn't spend it on a work by Hunter Biden.” We also called some Washington area art appraisers and gallery owners. They did not want to touch this topic with a ten-foot pole. Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you COLIN MILLER? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
