The Art Angle Podcast: How Jeffrey Epstein Made the Art World His Hunting Ground

Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that
delves into the places where the art world meets the real world,
bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join host Andrew
Goldstein every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in
museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own
writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top
experts in the field.

Over the past few weeks, the long-awaited trial of former
Hollywood rainmaker Harvey Weinstein has unfolded in harrowing
fashion, with one after another of his accusers taking the stand to
allege patterns of sexual and psychological abuse. The grim
courtroom proceedings are only the latest shockwave from
the #MeToo movement, which grew from accusations
against Weinstein into a national reckoning with sexual harassment,
sexual assault, and other rampant abuses perpetrated by those in
positions of power.

The art world has not been a safe haven from this heinous
activity. In fact, one of the most notorious predators in the
mainstream news cycle also cast a long shadow over this niche
industry. This week on the Art Angle, Andrew Goldstein
sits down with Artnet News deputy editor Rachel Corbett to discuss
a serial predator whose victims inside and outside the arts will
never have the chance to confront him: Jeffrey Epstein.

Many questions remain to be answered after Epstein, the former
financier, arts patron, and convicted sex offender who counted
numerous elite figures among his inner circle, was found dead of an
apparent suicide in his jail cell while waiting to stand trial for
charges of sex trafficking in New York. But his alleged crimes have
taken on new life in the art world due to detailed, troubling
accusations made by painter and former New York Academy of Art
student Maria Farmer, who claims Epstein and his associates
leveraged her creative
ambitions against her for their own perverse ends.

Farmer’s disturbing story details how Epstein turned the largely
unregulated art world into a hunting ground for new victims. The
issues raised by her accusations also loom large over all creative
fields, where personal relationships and favors from the top of the
hierarchy can make or break the careers of young, talented people
striving to make their mark.

Listen below and subscribe to the Art Angle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. (Or
catch up on past
episodes here on Artnet News.)

Please be advised: This episode contains accounts of sexual
abuse that some listeners may find disturbing. 

Listen to Other Episodes:

The Art Angle Podcast: How the Art World Fell Under
the Spell of the Occult

The Art Angle Podcast: Nicolas Party on Why Being
an Art Star Is Like Being in Love

The Art Angle Podcast: What Do the Protests in Hong
Kong Mean for Art?

The Art Angle Podcast: Four Predictions on How the
Art World Will Transform Itself in 2020

The Art Angle Podcast: The Radical, Viral Artworks
That Defined the 2010s

The Art Angle Podcast: How
an Artist’s $120,000 Banana Ate the World

The Art Angle Podcast: New
Yorker Art Scribe Calvin Tomkins on What Makes Great Artists
Tick

The Art Angle Podcast: Is the Art World Causing a
Climate Catastrophe?

The Art Angle Podcast: Art Basel Rules the Art
Market. Is That a Good Thing for Art?

The Art Angle Podcast: How
Yayoi Kusama Became an Unlikely Pop-Culture Phenomenon

The post The Art Angle Podcast: How Jeffrey Epstein Made the
Art World His Hunting Ground appeared first on artnet
News.