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   From: noreply@dirge.harmsk.com   
      
   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.   
      
   https://assets.sfstandard.com/image/994911177489/image_fc082enog13orb2n7r   
   mmiauu5o/-S640x827-FWEBP   
      
   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.   
      
   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   
      
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