After President Donald Trump boasted that he has an original Renoir painting hanging in his NYC Trump Tower apartment, the Art Institute of Chicago responded on Thursday, saying they have the only authentic version of the painting hanging on their walls and that Trump’s version is fake. However, Trump reportedly continues to insist that he has the real Renoir.
According to the Art Institute of Chicago, the authentic version of Two Sisters (On The Terrace) by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, has hung in their gallery since 1933. Amanda Hicks, a spokeswoman for the Art Institute, told the Chicago Tribune that the original Renoir was given to the institute in 1933 by Annie Swan Coburn.
Coburn had bought it from the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who purchased it from Renoir in 1881.
Coburn reportedly bought the painting from Durand-Ruel for $100,000. The sum of $100,000 in 1933 is equivalent to about $1,842,992.37 today.
Hicks told the Chicago Tribune that the Art Institute was not bothered by Trump’s claim because “we are satisfied that our version is real.”
However, Trump apparently still believes that his version of the painting, now hanging in his New York Trump Tower apartment, is the original. Trump’s Renoir was recently featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes . The painting was shown hanging on the wall behind Trump during the recent interview on 60 Minutes . It was also shown hanging on the wall behind Melania Trump during a recent interview on Fox News .
Trump’s biographer, Tim O’Brien, once revealed during a segment on Vanity Fair’s Inside the Hive podcast that he saw the painting hanging in Trump’s private jet some years ago and questioned its authenticity when Trump boasted it was an original Renoir.
“Donald, it’s not,” O’Brien recalled he said. “I grew up in Chicago, that Renoir is called Two Sisters (on the Terrace), and it’s hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago. That’s not an original.”
Trump reportedly doubled down on his claim, saying “that’s an original Renoir.”
“I’m sure he’s still telling people who come into the apartment, ‘It’s an original, it’s an original,’” O’Brien added.
“He believes his own lies… He’ll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.”
The White House reportedly declined comment on the matter.
However, Richard Brettell, an art expert at the University of Texas, told ArtNet that Trump’s version could not be the real one.
“The painting has long been known and has, since its gift to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1933, been one of the treasures of the museum,” he said.
[Featured Image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]
