Collectors Leslie Wexner and Glenn Dubin were both named in documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were unsealed by a federal judge on January 3.
Wexner is the billionaire founder of the retail empire Bath & Body Works Inc, formerly known as L Brands. He and his wife Abigail funded the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and are collectors of New York School artists and Picasso.
Dubin became a billionaire through hedge fund management, cofounding Highbridge Capital Management in 1992. He is currently a board trustee at the Museum of Modern Art.
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Both Wexner and Dubin have appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list. The connections between the billionaires and Epstein were already publicly known before the release of the unsealed documents on January 3.
In 2016, Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, testified that his companion Ghislaine Maxwell told her to have sex with Dubin. Dubin, his wife Eva Anderssen-Dubin, and their spokesperson vehemently denied the allegations.
In 2019, the anonymous feminist art collective Guerilla Girls called out MoMA following the announcement that a gallery at the museum would be named after Dubin and his wife. There were also several “Strike MoMA” demonstrations in 2021 targeting Dubin and four other board members.
As early as 2002, a feature in New York Magazine described the “weird relationship” between Wexner and Epstein, including their roles in a high-end housing development in New Albany, Ohio. Both had grand homes in the center of the large residential development, which surrounded a Jack Nicklaus–designed golf course. While the project was financed predominantly by Wexner, Epstein was also made a general partner “despite putting only a few million dollars of capital into the project.”
In 2019, the New York Times published a detailed investigation that described Wexner granting Epstein “sweeping powers” over the business titan’s finances, charitable giving, and his personal life. The actions included signing Wexner’s tax returns and borrowing money on his behalf, as well as obtaining a mansion in New York, a private plane, and the luxury estate in Ohio, assets valued at roughly $100 million.
Attempts to access and download the unsealed documents related to Epstein crashed PACER, the federal government’s website for court records. Copies of the zip file and the hundreds of pages were uploaded online by USA Today and 404 Media.