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Comment by jedmeyers | Hacker News Reader

Is buying a son’s painting considered a donation or not?

Elaborate? Out of the loop

Here's an article from the NYT about how they are trying to ethically sell Hunter Biden's artwork. "Ethically sell" was a term I chose specifically because Hunter Biden is not an artist, and the question of why his paintings are being sold for half a million dollars and to whom is substance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/us/politics/hunter-biden-...

Edit: Anyone can be an artist of course. Selling artwork for such a price would be quite an artist.

> Anyone can be an artist of course. Selling artwork for such a price would be quite an artist

Quite an artist indeed. Here is a Picasso that sold last month for $150,000.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/104029896_pablo-picasso...

No. In what world does buying setting from an adult relative consist of a donation?

And if a foreign government overpaying for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hotel stays in properties owned by the politician is not considered a donation, I can't imagine anyone thinking the painting thing would be.

That's anonymous - there's no way for the Biden's to ever know the buyer. Of course, the buyer can just show them a picture of the painting in their house or whatever but that would be unethical.

> Of course, the buyer can just show them a picture of the painting in their house or whatever but that would be unethical.

Unethical, yes…something which a good chunk of society have no qualms with, especially those in the business of bribing politicians.

It's unethical for the public to know who's the buyer, that's what they meant.

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