Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Failed to Disclose Their Multimillion-Dollar Art Collection

[DonViejo]

The couple has a taste for the works of market-friendly art stars, but lawyers say it's just for decoration.

Christian Erin-Madsen & Jeremy Olds & Renata Mosci & Sam Bloch, May 25, 2017

Since their wedding in 2009, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have amassed a formidable collection of contemporary art. The walls of the couple’s $4 million Park Avenue condo are filled with works by both blue-chip and emerging artists, including Alex Israel, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Alex Da Corte, and David Ostrowski. Ivanka Trump has regularly showcased the collection on Instagram, posing in front of the artwork in posts tied to her business.

Yet in required financial disclosures, Kushner, a senior advisor and son-in-law to President Trump, failed to report the couple’s art collection. (Trump, who also holds an unpaid title in her father’s administration, is considered covered by Kushner’s disclosures because they are married.)

The omission stands in contrast to disclosures from other senior members of the Trump administration. In recent months, Trump’s top cabinet picks have revealed considerable art holdings as part of required financial disclosures. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross disclosed an art collection worth at least $50 million. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin revealed his stake in a $14.7 million Willem de Kooning painting, plus other artworks.

Responding to an inquiry about the collection’s exclusion from Kushner’s financial disclosures, a lawyer advising Kushner told artnet News that the art holdings would be added to a new version of his disclosure form. “Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump display their art for decorative purposes and have made only a single sale,” said the lawyer in a statement issued by the White House. “To avoid any doubt, however, they will report their art collection.”

more
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-art-970010

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R for exposure.

[Tanuki]

2. It figures. Art is a notorious vehicle for money laundering.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/itsartlaw.com/2016/07/17/no-secrets-about-money-laundering/amp/

"Why does it seem like most notorious drug dealers and dictators have vast collections of art? Part of the reason is that most people love art and it happens to be easy to hide. Even though people’s interests and tastes may differ, the desire to collect or at the very least view art is consistent among large segments of the population. Read our recent review of “Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present.”

There is however, a more sinister incentive to “collect” valuable art. Art, especially paintings on canvas by a select group of artists, is easier to move and store than other assets of similar value, such as precious metals or cash. Patricia Cohen, Valuable as Art but Priceless as Tool to Launder Money, N.Y. Times, (May 12, 2013), at A.1. As a moveable commodity, for example, if rebel forces are raiding a dictator’s palatial compound it would be very easy to pull a painting off the wall, remove it from its frame and escape with an asset worth millions of dollars.

In 2007 a Basquiat work titled Hannibal was brought into the United States by Edemar Cid Ferreira, a Brazilian banker who purchased numerous works of art in a money laundering scheme. "......(more)

[dalton99a]

3. And we know where the money came from.

[MelissaB]

5. Thanks for that.

[underpants]

4. They suck at everything including just doing the paperwork

[BigmanPigman]

6. If any one of us made such "small, simple errors" in any of OUR paperwork,

financial records and disclosing statements as the Donald, his family, friends, cabinet members, allies, etc we would be in jail and fined. They get away with it by saying, "Ooops" and then they do it again and again.

[smirkymonkey]

7. The thing is, neither one of them probably knows a damn thing about art. Someone just tells

them it's valuable or a good investment and they buy it. You can't expect anyone in that classless family to actually have any cultural appreciation of the art in their possession. It's simply an "asset" to these types of people.