Every once in a while, the universe throws a surprise, and a beast emerges from the dark depths. Each time, we gasp for breath and struggle to understand how such brutes existed in our midst, disguised in civility. And just when we naively believe that we’ve seen the worst, another surfaces. Deeds that make us retch collectively with their savagery are revealed. Crimes that defy all dictionary definitions and violence that not just chills our bones but freezes our hearts are played out on screens and newspaper reports. We survive the shock, trusting that justice will be delivered, and adorn our idealistic noses once more with rose-tinted glasses to see the world.
The infamous Epstein Files are the current monster, the unravelling of which has caused unimaginable names to come tumbling out of horrifying cupboards. How can human beings systematically do this to another? How perverted can a mind be? How depraved must one’s soul be to prey on innocent children when one must have also been a child once? Questions that can probably never find their answers. But sometimes, a closer look at other aspects can shine a light on the workings of their minds. Convicted child sex offender and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s art collection was as creepy and bizarre as his crimes. Most of the artworks he possessed were not masterpieces, but rather focused on shock value.
One of the most sinister works he owned was a life-size sculpture of a bride, wearing her wedding gown, suspended from the ceiling, clinging to a rope. Anyone climbing the stairs to the first floor could not help but encounter this eerie work. Another painting from his collection, which speaks volumes about the man, is the 1995 painting by Damian Loeb titled ‘Little Miss Pink Tomato’, which depicts a pre-teen beauty pageant. Behind his desk hung the painting ‘Femme Fatale’ by Kees van Dongen, featuring a woman in a hat, with her left breast bare and open. Auction house Christie’s had referred to the painting as blatant exhibitionism and a caricature of seductiveness. It’s easy to guess why it found a place behind Epstein’s desk! Artist Maria Farmer was forced by Epstein to sell her thesis painting to him, which had a man at a doorway, observing a nude woman on a sofa.
Ironically, as if foreseeing his future, he is known to have shown his guests a photorealistic mural of a prison with barbed wire fences and guards, and himself in the centre, jokingly stating that it was highly possible that he could end up there. The entrance to his New York townhouse had rows of glass eyeballs framed and displayed. The list of freakish art is endless.
Following his death, most of the artworks have turned up for auction. Although the market’s interest is solely based on the background to the ownership, dealers do wonder if one could actually live with his art. Epstein could have afforded the best masterpieces and yet, his taste in art was just as perverted as he was. How true that one’s choices in life are mirrors to the depths of one’s character.