[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/154379480-e1771615400297.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tLeon Botstein, who has led Bard College since 1975 and shaped it into one of the art world\u2019s most influential liberal arts institutions, announced Friday that he will retire, after an independent report found he had not been \u201cfully accurate\u201d in his public accounts of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the New York Times<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n \n\tThe review, conducted by the law firm WilmerHale and commissioned by Bard\u2019s board of trustees, was released Friday alongside Botstein\u2019s announcement that he will step down as president on June 30.<\/p>\n \n\tThe findings did not identify illegal conduct on Botstein\u2019s part, but concluded that his relationship with Epstein\u2014which included visits, payments, personal messages, and a joint watch purchase worth $56,000\u2014raised serious concerns about his leadership and judgment. In the case of the watch, Botsein, a watch collector, had kept the watch for nearly a year before Epstein demanded that he return it, or pay him to cover the cost.<\/p>\n \n\tBotstein\u2019s retirement is a consequential moment for the art world: Bard is home to the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), one of the most prominent graduate programs in curatorial practice in the United States, and its affiliated CCS Hessel Museum of Art. Botstein\u2019s five-decade tenure had made the school a fixture in art-world institutional life.<\/p>\n \n\tDocuments released by the Department of Justice earlier this year showed Botstein\u2019s name appearing more than 2,800 times in Epstein-related files, including emails that indicated a warmer relationship than Botstein had previously acknowledged. In a 2013 note, Botstein signed off with \u201cMiss you\u201d and described his \u201cnew friendship\u201d with the financier, and expressed goodwill toward Epstein following news coverage of Epstein\u2019s abuse. The WilmerHale review also found that Botstein had visited Epstein\u2019s private island, invited Epstein to Bard\u2019s campus and to a Bard-affiliated high school.<\/p>\n \n\tBotstein has consistently characterized his relationship with Epstein as being focused solely on fundraising. \u201cThere is no way to reaffirm more unequivocally that the only reason I ever communicated with Jeffrey Epstein was in the work of fundraising for Bard,\u201d he said in an earlier statement. The WilmerHale report characterized Botstein\u2019s view of fundraising as \u201cI would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe pressure on Botstein had been building since February, when the first wave of DOJ documents surfaced. Shortly after, the board of trustees nnounced the WilmerHale investigation.<\/p>\n \n\tIn April, Botstein told Bard community members he intended to retire on his own timeline after a successor was found, but offered no specific date.<\/p>\n \n\tIn his statement Friday, Botstein said he believed it was in the \u201cbest interest of Bard\u201d to wait for the completion of the WilmerHale report before announcing his departure. He further said that he will remain at Bard as a professor and continue his work with the school\u2019s music programs, and will move into Finberg House, a campus residence hall. Botstein has served as principal conductor and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992.<\/p>\n \n\tBard\u2019s board of trustees, chaired by billionaire James Cox Chambers, thanked Botstein for \u201chis countless accomplishments and the lasting impact of his leadership,\u201d and said it will announce an interim president shortly and launch a national search for a permanent successor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/leon-botstein-bard-college-retires-epstein-wilmerhale-epstein-1234783769\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/154379480-e1771615400297.jpg?w=1024″] Leon Botstein, who has led Bard College since 1975 and shaped it into one of the art world\u2019s most influential liberal arts institutions, announced Friday that he will retire, after an independent report found he had not been \u201cfully accurate\u201d in his public accounts of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1920579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1920579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1920579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1920579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1920579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}