Artist who painted Bill Clinton in dress had ‘no idea’ it was hanging in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion
The artist behind Jeffrey Epstein’s now-viral portrait of Bill Clinton in a blue dress says she sold the painting at a Tribeca Ball fundraiser several years ago — and had “no idea” that Epstein was the one who had purchased it.
“In 2012, as a grad student at the New York Academy of Art, I painted pictures of Presidents Clinton and Bush as part of my master’s thesis,” explained Petrina Ryan-Kleid in a statement to The Post on Thursday.
“When the school put on a fundraiser at the Tribeca Ball that year, they sold my painting to one of the attendees. I had no idea who the buyer was at the time,” said Ryan-Kleid, a New York-based artist from Australia. “As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein’s home.”
Sources told The Post on Wednesday that Epstein — who was facing sex trafficking charges before his alleged suicide — had the oil painting hanging in his home for all to see.
“It was hanging up there prominently — as soon as you walked in — in a room to the right,” a source said. “Everybody who saw it laughed and smirked.”
A woman who visited the Epstein residence before his July arrest confirmed the existence of the Clinton painting to the Daily Mail. She was able to snap a picture of the painting with her cellphone.
In it, the former president can be seen lounging on a chair in the Oval Office, pointing toward the viewer, while wearing red heels and a blue dress similar to the one Monica Lewinsky famously wore during their White House hookup. Ryan-Kleid dubbed the painting “Parsing Bill.”
It was one of several bizarre art pieces that Epstein, 66, kept in his $56 million mansion.
The convicted pedophile als
o had a taxidermied tiger and poodle, a mannequin hanging from the ceiling — dressed in a wedding gown — and a $5.6 million painting of a woman cupping her bare breast.
“It was so odd,” recalled a hedge fund trader who once visited Epstein’s home.
Re: Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell: the whole story so far
Wanted to bring this to the group -- saw some discussion on /r/conspiracy that this dailymail article was an elaborate con on behalf of the original artist of the painting to draw more attention to this work/drive up sales. What is the source of this "picture of Epstein's house w/ the painting" ? Have we confirmed this to be a legitimate story or more #fakenews? GOtta be careful these days jumping on something that could potentially be disinformation and derail the actual story.
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