Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Leon Black’s Epstein Fallout Stopped at the Museum Door (Part 2) (8/18/26)

Transcript

Leon Black’s Epstein Fallout Stopped at the Museum Door (Part 2) (8/18/26) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're picking up where we
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: left off with the Vanity Fair article talking about Leon Black.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The author of this article once again is Nae Freeman.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, Black was named to the Art
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: News Top two hundred Collectors list, the industry bible for
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the people who collect at the highest level. Who was
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: around this time that Black started throwing his money into institutions.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: He lent work to a blockbuster Goya show at the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: National Gallery of Art in two thousand and one, and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: back to show centered on Pierre Matisse as a dealer
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: at the Morgan Library in two thousand and two. He
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was the primary backer of a month show at MoMA
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six. So, look, this dude is
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: definitely locked in and the world of art they love him.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: There is no doubt that he is a favored son
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of the world of high end art. And I think
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it really just tells you everything you need to know.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: All the people involved in MoMA, all the people involved
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: in all these events that have them there and especially
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: giving them a place of prominence, well they have some
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: questions to answer right now. Look, people are going to
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: get invited to events, and I understand that. I'm not
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: saying that Leon Black shouldn't be invited to events, but
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean we're not gonna have questions or criticism
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: about it. When you have somebody that's this highly placed
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in society, who was obviously deeply intertwined with one of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the biggest criminals maybe in the past what thirty forty
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: years in this country, and when you look at Jeffrey
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Epstein's crimes free, I don't think that's hyperbole because remember,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: we're not just talking about the abuse. We're talking about
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: financial crimes. We're talking about sham marriages, immigration crimes, all
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sorts of shit, and Leon Black was right in the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: middle of all of it. He was also beginning to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: hobnob at art world events. In two thousand, Black attended
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Art Basel, Miami Beach and was seated at a W
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: magazine dinner for Don and Merrow Rubel next to Stefano Tanci,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the publications editor at the time. In twenty twelve, he
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: bought the art book publisher Fadon, and in twenty fourteen
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: he added the online art concern art Space to its holdings,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: so basically the godfather of art at this point, right,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: if you're doing anything at high end art, you're probably
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: involved with Leon Black. And if you're involved with Leon Black,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that makes you adjacent to Jeffrey Epstein, right, because at
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this point everybody knows what Leon Black is, So if
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you still choose to associate with him, well that's on you.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: And I don't want to hear anything about, oh, my reputation,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: because if you cared about your reputation, you wouldn't be
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: hanging out with people that were adjacent to Jeffrey Epstein
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: or that were involved in Jeffrey Epstein's day to day activities.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: But here we are. The audience were also when Black
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: started working in close collaboration with Jeffrey Epstein. In Black's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: interview with the Seleck Committee, he claimed he trusted Epstein
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: simply because so many other respected individuals also dependent on
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: him to look over their cash. Such a BS excuse.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine being as rich as Leon Black and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: just following along with everybody else? Do you really think
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that's what happened? Do you really think Leon Black one
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: day woke up and said, you know what, I really
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: wonder what Deepak Chopra's up to. I wonder what Bill
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Gates is doing as far as their finances. I wonder
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: if I should do what they're doing and talk to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the people they're talking to as if Leon Black wasn't
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: already as rich as all of them, basically certainly richer
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: than Choprah. But because all these other people were doing it,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Leon Black's going to get on board. Does that sound
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: like somebody who built the fortune that Leon Black built?
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Does that sound like somebody who's always been at the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: head of the class. Just to get in line and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: follow along with everybody else and do what everybody else
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: is doing. Doesn't make sense to me, and I doubt
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to you. By the time I first
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: paid Epstein in twenty thirteen, I knew him to possess
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: an unrivaled network of relationships with individuals and finance, academia, science,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and politics. Black said, a group that included Deepak Chopra,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Tom Barrock, Tom Pritzker, Reed Hoffman, Elon Musk, Sergey Brinn,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, Peter Thiel, and Steve Bannon,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: among others. And look, there's no doubt that that's a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: list of so called respectable businessmen. Right, But when you
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: start getting down to it, how many of them had
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: ties to Ebstein? Oh that's right, all of them. And
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: because of those ties, mister Black says, that's why he
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: wanted to be friends with Ebstein too. And make no mistake, folks,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that's all part of the hustle. They'll all just blame
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: each other. Oh well, I had no idea, Meaning Bill Gates,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Leon Black was hanging out with him, so I thought
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it was cool, and on and on it goes. But
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: nobody ever takes responsibility or accountability for the shit they
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: did or for the people they were associating with. And
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: if d pac Choper likes the guy who is Leon Black,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: not to trust him basically what I just said, right,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking about one of the richest, most
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: powerful men, one of the most shrewd men when it
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: comes to money in the whole world. But all of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a sudden he needs all this help and advice from
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: a former math teacher from Balton High School or Dalton
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: School who got kicked out, who got fired. This is
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the guy you're bringing in. You mean to tell me
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: there's no other professionals in the industry that could do
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: what Epstein does. Well, I'm going to tell you that's bullshit, unless,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of course, you're talking about stashing money, hiding it, coloring it,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and laundering it, because that's the reason you use Jeffrey
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Epstein's services. So stop the bullshit, stop the lies, and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: stop trying to tell us that you have had no idea.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Black is one of the few private citizens to personally
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: own a globally famous guy on the street would recognize
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: this work of art. Softbees was set to sell Edward
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Munch's The Scream, which had an estimated value of eighty million.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Biddings started at forty million, with half a dozen buyers
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: actively in the hunt. The late Softbees vice president Charles Mofford,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: speaking with a client on the landline phone outlasted them all.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: After a twelve minute bidding war, the Hammer came down
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: at one hundred and seven million, or nearly one hundred
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and twenty million with the buyer's premium, making it the
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: most expensive work of art ever sold at that point.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty million dollars for that picture. That art.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I just don't get it. Now. Maybe I'm just not
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: cultured enough, but I don't get it. The thought of
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: spending that kind of money on a piece of art
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: is absolutely insane. I mean, what are we even doing here?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Eighty million dollars and then it goes all the way
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: up to one hundred and twenty and on the phone
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: with Moffitt was Leon Black. At the time, the price
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: was shocking. Now it seems a bit quaint, honestly, a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: steal at a time when works with much less cultural
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: weight have been selling for hundreds of millions of dollars,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the demand for undeniable trophies is far out pacing the supply. Well,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: that tells me that there's a lot of people out
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: there with way more money than they need. Maybe we
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: should be doing some audits on these people with these
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: gigantic art collections. Might be a great idea, right, And look,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people that wants to steal
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: all the money from the rich people, blah blah blah.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: But they're obviously laundering their money and they're obviously hiding it.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And the sad truth is Congress writes these tax laws
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: with that in mind. They have to have loopholes, right
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: for the people that really pay the bills, for the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: people that really control the party, and like I've been
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: telling you from the very beginning, those people are people
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: likely on Black. Some estimate that if Leon Black ever
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: put The Scream up again at auction, it would become
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the first artwork to sell for over one billion. The
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: purchase cemented his status as a true trophy hunter, buying
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: up master works for his private collection. Just six months
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: after The Scream sold for the record price, the Museum
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: of Modern Art organized an exhibition put together by Chief
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: curator and Temken that showcase the iconic work, and the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Waltech said it was loaned from a private collection. At
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the time, Black was serving as the vice chair on
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the board, and by twenty fifteen he was selected co
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: chairman of one of our culture's most exclusive clicks, the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Moment Board. Just another group I would never want anything
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to do with. The second you tell me it's an
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: exclusive click, No thank you. You know, these motherfuckers are
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: up to no good and they're probably dancing around that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: owl out at Bohemian growth, bunch of weird mask wearing
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: sons of bitches. In twenty eighteen, Black was elected the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: sole chair of the board of MoMA, having ascended to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: that perch over the course of decades, but a few
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: years later, the ground swell of anger around the Epstein
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: revelations was forcing a reckoning throughout the museum world. When
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Black's term as chair of the MoMA Board was coming
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: up in twenty twenty one, he decided to opt out
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: of returning, but he did not leave the board, where
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: he remains today. As Lowry told WSJ at the time,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he chose not to run for reelection for the chair
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: because he wanted to make a decision that was not
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: going to be harmful to the museum. Well here's an idea,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: don't be a scumbag that might help our board looked
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: very carefully at Leon and ultimately decided that he was
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a solid trustee and he should remain. Lowry also noted
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that Leon has never been charged with the crime related
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to Epstein. They love to be slick with that shit, right, Oh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: he was never charged. Well, he was never charged, He
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: was never investigated, so how can he be charged. They
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: think they're cute, but they're really not. That same month,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: March twenty twenty one, he stepped down from his roles
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: as CEO of Apollo way earlier than expected. An investigation
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: into his connections to Epstein by the law firm Deckert
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: wrapped up in January of twenty twenty one, finding no
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: evidence of wrongdoing. Yet, even though he'd planned to step
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: down in July, he cut the cord months earlier, citing
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: his health. It's always their health, right, Well, I need
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: to spend more time with my family. You mean the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: family that you were cheating on. That family. And then
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: in January of twenty twenty six, the Epstein Files were released.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Art world media junkies quickly figured out that the largest
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: cash of art related documents in the Epstein Files has
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: to do with Black. Taken together, this collection of emails,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: bank statements, and tax dossiers doesn't just offer the fullest
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: picture of an art collector in the Epstein Files, it
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: might offer the most forensic, under the hood dive into
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a private art collection ever publicly released. The documents showed
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: that in March of twenty fifteen, Black put up one
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: billion of his art as collateral to secure a four
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty four million dollar loan from Bank of America.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: By twenty seventeen, the collateral package had grown in value
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a one point four billion, and the loan was six
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety five million. The Epstein files revealed that
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Black's art collection is an LLC holding that he owns
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: outright or is linked to. In order to facilitate this,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: every single work that he owned had to be personally
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and meticulously cataloged by Epstein, who had been providing Black
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: with what was described as financial advice to the tune
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of an astounding one hundred and seventy million, which Black
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: paid to Ebstein over the course of six years. So
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: if you're a crack dealer and you're selling crack out
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: of your mom's house, they can seize your mom's house.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: So why isn't Leon Black under investigation? And then if
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: it gets to a point where he gets convicted, they
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: should seize all this heart and sell it off and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: give it to the survivors. But as we all know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: those laws are only for us. Pouring over the spreadsheet
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: brings endless surprises. It's simply unheard of for the public
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to get a hold of the collection, manifest usually shrouded
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and Pentagon levels a secrecy. Some of the bigger ticket
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: items that Black has acquired over the years appear in
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the endless list of thousands of paintings sculptures, video, furniture pieces,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: artifacts and antiques. There's a Picasso sculpture Postai de Femi
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that was tied up in a dispute with a Gaitari
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: royal family. But until the release of the Epstein files,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: we didn't know the official price that Black paid for it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Now we do, one hundred and twenty five million. They
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: also reveal that, in addition to the Rafael that Black
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: bought at Christie's London in two thousand and nine, Black
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: also bought the Rafael offered at South Beast, London in
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: twenty twelve for forty eight million. Just throwing money around, huh.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I wonder how much of this was reported. I wonder
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: how much of this is taxable. It's unclear whether black
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: standing in the cultural Mulay will ever fully shift. Even
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: following his June testimony, he still owns a Scream, which
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: is reportedly on view at the former home of Noldler Gallery,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: which Black purchased for fifty million in twenty fifteen. MoMA
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: did not respond to a request for comment. Zero chance.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: They have nothing to say. They just want to cash
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: the checks. That's all they care about. During the congressional hearing,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Black claimed that he was completely unaware of EV's Mean's
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: criminal activity, even though in two thousand and eight Epstein
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: had fleeted guilty to one count of solicitation a prostitution
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and one count a soliciting prostitution from a person under eighteen.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: He served thirteen months in prison. No, he didn't thirteen
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: months in a stockade. Epstein was registered sex offender for
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the entirety of his relationship with Black. Evidently, this particular
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: black mark against Epstein didn't especially bother a Black Well
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: fellow travelers, right, The only problem would be if Epstein
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was broke. I took it seriously, Black toll pucks William D.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Cohen in twenty twenty four. But I didn't take it
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that seriously. I mean, he was with a seventeen year
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: old prostitute, got prosecuted for it and got put away
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: for a year, and Geno, according to him, even that
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: person had shown an id that she wasn't under age.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: My feeling is there are serious things and there are
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: things that are less serious. I didn't think it was
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the end of the world, frankly, And if you were
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: wondering why the Florida prosecution is such a gigantic black
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: eye here it is. That's their excuse, right, Oh we
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: didn't know. Well he was prosecuted for a seventeen year
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: old girl, Yeah, after he manipulated the whole entire fucking
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: process to make sure that was the only charge that stuck.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: But sure, bang on with your bullshit. The files later
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: revealed that Black wrote a note to Epstein on his
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: fiftieth birthday, calling him best of all, a dear friend,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and signed it lovin kisses Leon. So you know that
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: big club that George Carlin always talked about, Well this
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: is it and you and I were still not invited.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: All the information that goes with this episode can be
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: found in the description box.