For years, rumors have swirled that disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein contributed a work of art to the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Those rumors seemed to be confirmed Friday, when the Justice Department released a fresh tranche of about 3 million documents relating to Epstein.
One document suggests that in 2001, Epstein donated a work of software art by John F. Simon Jr. to the museum’s permanent collection under a rare “fractional ownership” agreement, in which Epstein and the museum shared the title. Another email suggests that Epstein may have financially supported work by former MIT professor Neri Oxman, a project that was later shown at the museum.
“I want to express my deep appreciation for your continued support in building our collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,” Neal Benezra, the museum’s director at the time, wrote to Epstein in 2009. “Your wonderful generosity has, indeed, contributed to making SFMOMA one of the premier venues for modern and contemporary art. It is our community’s shared dedication to art and its capacity to enrich lives that has grounded this enterprise for 75 years.”
Benezra encouraged Epstein to contact the museum’s media art curator, Rudolf Frieling, with any questions.
Benezra and Frieling, both of whom joined the museum after the acquisition of the Simon work, did not respond to requests for comment. Benezra resigned in 2021.
Information on the artwork attached in Benezra’s letter suggests that SFMOMA acquired Simon’s “ComplexCity” in 2001 under the directorship of David A. Ross, an art writer and curator. Ross resigned Wednesday as department chair at New York’s School of Visual Arts after his decades-long friendship with Epstein came to light (opens in new tab). Ross served as director of SFMOMA from 1998 until 2001, resigning due to economic constraints (opens in new tab), according to reports at the time.
An email in the Justice Department files released Friday indicates that Epstein attempted to reach Ross through his old SFMOMA email address as late as 2015.
ComplexCity by John F. Simon Jr., 2000, software, Apple PowerBook G3, and acrylic.
The letter described “ComplexCity” as a “fractional and promised gift of Jeffrey Epstein,” with SFMOMA holding a 20% ownership interest.
The value of the artwork is not known, but another Simon piece from the same year sold at Christie’s (opens in new tab) for $3,000 in 2017.
The Standard spoke in September and October with former employees of SFMOMA who said the mutually owned “ComplexCity” had been the subject of gossip inside the museum for years, though none could confirm details on it or whether it remained in the collection.
In light of the newly released emails, a spokesperson for SFMOMA characterized Benezra’s letter as a standard form communication containing general donor language, adding that the museum has no records indicating Epstein provided support after 2001. The spokesperson said “ComplexCity” was deaccessioned in October 2019 — two months after Epstein was found dead in his jail cell — and the museum’s interest transferred back to the artist. The work was never exhibited at SFMOMA, and the deaccession did not result in a financial loss for the museum, the spokesperson said.
The death masks
Epstein came into SFMOMA’s orbit in other ways, too, according to newly unearthed emails from 2017.
Oxman, the Israeli designer and wife to billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, thanked Epstein in a June 2017 email for his support of her series of experimental “death masks (opens in new tab),” writing that the collection would travel to MoMA in New York and SFMOMA in the coming years.
Two months later, Oxman sent a series of emails to Epstein soliciting additional funding for another project involving the masks.
“I wanted to pick your brain and see if you’d like to help support another Death Mask-like collection,” she wrote. “Vespers would have not come to life without you,” she continued, referring to her series of masks (opens in new tab).
In December 2017, one month after Epstein’s assistant, Lelsey Groff, and Oxman coordinated a dinner with Woody Allen and his wife at Epstein’s home, the correspondence became even more specific.
Oxman wrote that while she had raised money for a new project “based off of the death masks, moving to architectural scales,” they were looking for an additional $25,000 to $50,000. She asked Epstein directly if he could contribute.
“25k,” Epstein responded affirmatively, and quickly. “Of course.”
Oxman replied with enthusiasm: “Wow that would be amazing. Thank you so much.”
Oxman’s next work with the death masks, “Vespers II” was included in her 2022 SFMOMA show “Nature x Humanity (opens in new tab).”
