The New York Academy of Art continues to make headlines. Files recently disclosed on the website of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed the multiple connections between the establishment and the sexual predator. They got the private art school to return part of the million dollars (€870,000) received from the billionaire. $30,000 (€26,120) has already been paid in 2020, and $65,900 (€57,400) will be paid in 2026. The sums will go to an association helping young girls who are victims of sex trafficking.
The school was created in the Tribeca district in 1982 at the instigation of philanthropic entrepreneurs and patron artists including Andy Warhol. From the beginning of the 1990s, Jeffrey Epstein established links there. He then sits on the board of directors. It also funds scholarships and various programs such as the Tribeca Ball or a “Take Home a Nude” auction.
In a less formal way, he commissioned works from students, and above all came to recruit his future victims, like Maria Farmer who in 1996 would be one of his first two accusers. The institution did not end relations with him when he was convicted for the first time in 2008 and served 13 months in prison in Florida. According to the New York TimesEileen Guggenheim, then dean of the establishment, would have been informed by Maria Farmer that “the most disturbing thing had happened” but would not have reacted.
Today the New York Academy of Art is therefore beginning procedures to return Jeffrey Epstein’s donations and issued an apology in an official press release: “The academy should not have accepted contributions from him, allowed him to attend its events, or allowed him to have any connection with programs involving students or other community members after his criminal actions were exposed.”.
Since the various investigations, then the revelations of the files made in recent weeks, several organizations which have also benefited from the predator’s donations are looking for solutions to wash their hands of these poisoned gifts. Most of the time through “ethical compensation” or donations to organizations protecting victims of abuse or sex trafficking, but also sometimes only with a letter of apology.
The Interlochen Center for the Arts is an arts education facility in Michigan that runs summer camps, which Epstein himself attended in 1967 when he was 14 years old. This place, an incubator of artistic talents, where, among others, Norah Jones and Felicity Huffman stayed, was a hunting ground for Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. A regular donor from 1990 to 2003, he financed the construction of a chalet on site which he enjoyed every summer for two weeks. Two testimonies, from the 2021 trial and an investigation by National Public Radio (NPR), relate manipulative behavior by the billionaire and his partner aimed at gaining confidence in very young girls, financing their studies or making his private jet available to then obtain sexual favors. The Interlochen Center for the Arts has not reimbursed the amounts or made ethical compensation but has implemented stricter rules for student safety and well-being on its campus. The lodge funded by Epstein remains unused and has been renamed.
Epstein’s largest donations were to university science departments. This is the case at Columbia, to which he donated, among other things, $100,000 (€87,000) in 2012, in exchange for the admission of his last partner, Karyna Shuliak. The university, which in total received $200,000 (€174,000), recently committed to paying the equivalent of the amounts received to associations.
At Harvard, the billionaire would have paid $9.1 million (€7.9 million) in a decade. The university also redirected the unused $186,000 (€162,000) to associations and declared having cut ties in 2008 during the first conviction. But it appears in the email exchanges published by the DOJ that two professors continued to benefit from Epstein’s largesse. George Chruch, who carried out research in biotechnology and gene editing as well as Martin Nowak who appears in Epstein’s very last will and who is a beneficiary of $5 million (€4.4 million). None of them were fired. And the amounts they collected have not been reimbursed.
