'Hunter Biden artworks worth ‘millions of dollars’ destroyed in LA fires: source'

 A trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden has been destroyed — one of the casualties of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, The Post has learned.

The controversial art had been in storage near the Pacific Palisades home of Hunter’s Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris and is valued at “millions of dollars,” a source close to the Biden family said.

Morris, who loaned the first son nearly $5 million to help pay a tax bill and has been financing a documentary on him, lives in a sprawling five-bedroom, six-bathroom home which is among the few houses still intact in the posh neighborhood, The Post can confirm.

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Kevin Morris sits with Hunter Biden and his attorney Abbe Lowell during a congressional hearing of the Oversight Committee last year.Getty Images

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Hunter Biden in his art studio with his former art dealer Georges Berges.Courtesy of Georges Berges

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Morris could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Last week, as the fires began to rage, President Biden said his son’s home in nearby Malibu may still be intact. “Today, it appears that it’s still standing. They’re not sure.”

A lawyer for Hunter Biden, who is a self-taught artist who turned to painting while in recovery from drug addiction, did not immediately return a request for comment.

A Soho gallerist who represented the first son’s work and had organized solo shows of his paintings in Los Angeles and New York from 2021 said he broke ties with Hunter last year.

“I don’t know what’s happening with the art,” said gallery owner Georges Berges. “I have some of his work on canvas, some metal pieces at the gallery.”

Hunter’s art pieces have been priced as high as $500,000 each, although Berges told The Post the average price was closer to $85,000.

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A painting by Hunter Biden for sale at the Georges Berges Gallery in 2022. It’s not clear how much of the first son’s artwork was lost in the Southern California wildfires.Alec Tabak for NY Post

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Hunter Biden, a self-taught artist, painted whimsical nature scenes on Japanese paper.Alec Tabak for NY Post

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Another artwork by Hunter Biden, portraying a blue bird nestled among trees. His artworks sell for around $85,000 each, according to his former art dealer.Alec Tabak for NY Post

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Wildfires have devastated Los Angeles for a week, destroying tens of thousands of structures, homes and businesses.Getty Images

Morris bought $875,000 worth of Hunter’s artworks via Berges, many of them of flowers on Japanese paper, he said.

Berges told a congressional panel investigating the Biden family’s assets last year that Hunter knew the people who bought most of his art, despite assurances from the White House that buyers would be kept secret to avoid a conflict of interest with the president.

In addition to Morris, Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali was named as another buyer. She obtained works before and after scoring a prestigious presidential appointment, according to reports.

Hunter Biden was issued a controversial pardon by his father on gun and tax evasion crimes last month.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/15/us-news/hunter-biden-artworks-destroyed-in-los-angeles-fires-source/

Alito mockingly asks whether people visit Pornhub for articles ‘like the old Playboy magazine’

 Judge not, Judge Alito.

The conservative Supreme Court justice raised eyebrows Wednesday when he pointedly wondered aloud during oral arguments whether smut site Pornhub carries cultural content similar to “the old Playboy magazine.”

The high court is hearing a challenge to a Texas law mandating that adult sites verify the age of their users, with an industry group arguing the requirement violates the First Amendment.

“One of the parties here is the owner of Pornhub,” Alito, 74, asked attorney Derek Shaffer, representing the plaintiffs. “What percentage of the material on that is not obscene as to children?”

After Shaffer acknowledged that to “the youngest minors … most of it is” obscene, Alito went a step further.

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“But is it like the old Playboy magazine? You have essays there by the modern-day equivalent of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.?” Alito interjected to audible laughs, recalling the longstanding joke about men buying Hugh Hefner’s venerable title “for the articles.”

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Justice Samuel Alito tried to cut through lawyer Derek Shaffer’s defense of the porn industry.REUTERS

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Alito focused on Pornhub briefly while trying to drill down on the dynamics behind the most popular porn site.Shutterstock / burakguler

“Not in that sense,” Shaffer admitted, “but in the sense [that] you have sexual wellness posts about women recovering from hysterectomies and how they can enjoy sex. That’s on there. Discussions of age verification proposals and where the industry lines up as far as what they think should be legislated and what should not.”

Texas passed the law in 2023 and it specifically applies to companies where over one-third of the content is considered detrimental to minors. The measure stipulates that websites take “reasonable” age verification steps and levies a $ 1,000-a-day penalty on violators.

The Lone Star State law was recently upheld by the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that governments have a compelling interest in preventing youngsters from viewing porn.

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The Supreme Court justice alluded to the old joke about boys buying Playboy Magazine for the articles.

Prior to Alito’s grilling, fellow conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch grilled Shaffer about the percentage of his clients’ material that “would be considered obscene for minors.”

Shaffer demurred, arguing that “it’s tough to arrive at that calculation” before later suggesting that at least 70% of the content in question was inappropriate for kids.

At another point during oral arguments, Alito scoffed at Shaffer’s suggestion that parents be more proactive in monitoring and restricting their children’s online habits.

“Do you know a lot of parents who are more tech-savvy than their 15-year-old children?” the justice shot back.

The case, Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, will be decided sometime before the end of June.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/15/us-news/justice-alito-mockingly-asks-whether-people-visit-pornhub-for-articles-like-the-old-playboy-magazine/