An activist has been arrested and charged for vandalizing the Soho art gallery set to feature Hunter Biden’s artwork, telling authorities he wanted to protest President Joe Biden’s “war crimes.”
Authorities arrested activist Rod Webber, whom the New York Post described as an “art interrupter,” on Friday after he walked into the Georges Bergès Gallery in SoHo and spray-painted “Daddy” backwards on the wall in red spray-paint. Employees grabbed Webber, who could be heard saying, “What, you’re arresting me ’cause your down with Biden’s war crimes?”
Webber shouted, “Daddy war crimes! War crimes, baby!” several times throughout the altercation.
This was far from his first run-in with the law:
The Boston man made headlines in 2019 when he defaced an art installation featuring a duct-taped banana at Art Basel, scrawling “Epstien [stet] didn’t kill himself,” and gobbling up the fruit.
He made news again when he vandalized Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida mansion months later.
Webber, who was charged with “assault, criminal mischief, attempted assault, making graffiti, and possession of graffiti instruments,” reportedly told law enforcement that he did not have an issue with Hunter’s artwork itself.
“I don’t hate it. It’s better than he should be for having only been working on it for a short period of time,” Webber said, reportedly telling an officer, “I was trying to paint the phrase, ‘Daddy is a war criminal.'”
“While Hunter Biden and his artwork is, you know, it’s not bad, it’s curious to me that it’s raising prices of half a million dollars just out of the blue,” he said. “It says to me that there’s some kind of malfeasance there.”
Webber also wrote on Facebook that the “Art Gallery promotes crime family.”
The incident comes as the White House struggles with Hunter Biden’s latest art venture. The scandal-plagued son’s work is set to be featured and sold in the gallery this fall, ranging from $75,000 to $500,000. The White House is attempting to address the ethical concerns, purportedly crafting a plan to make buyers of Hunter’s artwork anonymous, effectively erasing any semblance of transparency.
The secrecy in the art world, which a bipartisan Senate investigation detailed as problematic last year, remains a concern, but the issue is greatly intensified with Hunter’s involvement, given the Biden family has been accused of using the family name as leverage and engaging in pay-for-play schemes, particularly as Biden served as vice president — from Hunter making tens of thousands of dollars per month on the board the Ukrainian oligarch-owned energy company Burisma to striking business deals with China.
Even Walter Shaub, former ethics chief under former President Barack Obama, slammed the Biden White House following the reports of its plans to reduce transparency in the transactions.
“White House officials getting involved in any way other than to request transparency amounts to effectively putting an official stamp of approval on the president’s son trading on his father’s public service,” Shaub told Fox News:
The idea’s that even Hunter won’t know, but the WH has outsourced government ethics to a private art dealer. We’re supposed to trust a merchant in an industry that’s fertile ground for money laundering, as well as unknown buyers who could tell Hunter or WH officials? No thanks./2
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 8, 2021
Yeah yeah, I know some folks aren’t going to like this thread because we’re not supposed to criticize the president who’s way better than the ethical disaster named Trump. But, you know what? With democracy on the ropes, ethics has never been more important. And this ain’t it. /4
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 8, 2021
White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed concerns Friday, telling reporters Hunter Biden “has the right to pursue an artistic career” and sell his work for up to half a million dollars with buyers remaining undisclosed, despite the fact that Hunter is still invested in CCP-linked firms and working with art dealer Georges Bergès, who has links to China as well.
“All interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by professional gallerists, adhering to the highest industry standards,” Psaki said.
“And any offer out of the normal course will be rejected out of hand and the gallerists will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including with Hunter Biden or the administration,” she added.
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