Just days after disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was discovered dead in his prison cell, reports have emerged saying he kept a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton dressed in drag hanging inside his Manhattan residence, Daily Mail reported.
The painting was only one of a series of strange decor items found inside his $56 million townhouse.
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The oil painting in question appears to show the former U.S. president lounging in a chair in the Oval Office.
What’s especially strange about the picture is Clinton’s garb. He is dressed in drag, donning a pair of red heels and a blue dress that some have pointed out closely resembles a similar outfit previously worn by his wife, Hilary.
Others have speculated the striking blue color of the dress might be in reference to Clinton’s former intern, Monica Lewinsky, who wore a blue dress during their infamous sex scandal while he was in still office.
An anonymous woman shared a photograph of the painting to Daily Mail and claimed she took it while visiting his home for a business meeting in 2012.
“It was absolutely Bill Clinton,” she said. “It was shocking — it was definitely a painting of him. It was a very provocative, sexual picture.”
She added that she spotted the portrait through an open doorway and was stunned, wondering “Why in the world would Epstein have that up? I didn’t even know that they knew each other.”
The original painting by Australian-American artist Petrina Ryan-Kleid is tiled “Parsing Bill”.
It’s unclear if Epstein bought the canvas or had a print mounted. In either case, another source confirmed to New York Post that the portrait hung proudly in the multimillionaire’s home.
“It was hanging up there prominently — as soon as you walked in — in a room to the right,” they said. “Everybody who saw it laughed and smirked.”
In addition to the painting, reports of even more bizarre decor pieces in Epstein’s home have emerged.
Some reports claim the 66 year old also kept a mannequin dressed in a wedding dress hanging down from the ceiling over a staircase. He also reportedly has a dining room designed to resemble a beach, featuring a table covered with photos of famous people, including a signed picture with himself and Clinton.
In 2003 Vanity Fair reported Epstein’s hallway was decorated with “row upon row of individually framed eyeballs…imported from England.”
The portrait is the latest development in the mysterious relationship between the Clintons and Epstein.
Bill and Epstein were apparently once friends, and the former president even accompanied him on his private plane on several occasions, though Clinton has denied ever traveling to Epstein’s “pedophile island,” Little St. James.
However, one of Epstein’s former sex slaves has claimed she saw Clinton on the island attending a dinner held in his honor. Unsealed court documents also reportedly name Clinton as one of the various high-profile men Epstein arranged sexual encounters for.
h/t: Daily Mail
