[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/154379480-e1771615400297.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tLeon Botstein, the former Bard College president of five decades, who retired this spring amid scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, resigned this week from all of his roles affiliated with the arts school. Botstein announced his retirement in May after a trove of documents collected by the Justice Department, known as the Epstein Files, revealed that the two shared a closer relationship than previously disclosed. He nevertheless remained involved in the school\u2019s music programs and was allowed to teach students.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat changed on Wednesday, when the House Judiciary Committee delivered a letter to Bard leaders noting that, while Botstein was president, he \u201clikely enabled and possibly even participated in\u201d Epstein\u2019s criminal activities, the New York Times<\/em> reports. The letter was also critical of Bard\u2019s handling of sexual misconduct complaints during Botstein\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n \n\tBotstein led Bard College from 1975 and was known as a deft fundraiser who helped earn the small institution global renown. Bard is home to the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), one of the most prominent graduate programs in curatorial practice in the United States, as well as its affiliated CCS Hessel Museum of Art. Over his five-decade tenure, Botstein helped make the college\u2019s curatorial program a must-watch. <\/p>\n \n\tBut his reputation was dealt a grievous blow by the Epstein files, which showed that Botstein corresponded closely with the late financier for years, including after Epstein\u2019s conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. In one widely reported 2013 exchange, Botstein signed off with \u201cMiss you,\u201d and elsewhere wrote of treasuring his \u201cnew friendship\u201d with Epstein, even wishing him well after news broke of his sex-trafficking scheme.<\/p>\n \n\tBard College commissioned an independent review of Botstein\u2019s relationship with Epstein in April. Conducted by the law firm WilmerHale, the review determined that Botstein had not committed any crimes but found that his ties to Epstein cast doubt on his leadership. \u201cIn his public statements and his statements to the Bard community, President Botstein minimized and was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein,\u201d the review concluded.<\/p>\n \n\tThe review also noted that Botstein had visited Epstein\u2019s now-notorious island, invited Epstein to visit Bard, and accepted payments from him. According to the review, Botstein \u201cforcefully\u201d argued that raising money for Bard was \u201cparamount\u201d: \u201cHis view was, \u2018I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God\u2019s work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBotstein remained closely involved with Bard after his resignation, serving as artistic co-director of the Bard Music Festival and leader of The Orchestra Now, the college\u2019s graduate-level music program. He also continued to conduct the American Symphony Orchestra. His lingering presence, however, was divisive on campus. <\/p>\n \n\tFaculty at the Fisher Center at Bard, which Botstein founded in 1990, published an open letter to the Bard board of trustees expressing concern that the reported details of Botstein\u2019s association with Epstein, along with the WilmerHale investigation, had \u201cgenerated ongoing unease among our community, and instilled a broad sense of distrust in Botstein\u2019s ability to be an effective, transparent leader in any capacity at the College.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe letter called on Bard leadership to end its contracts with Botstein, concluding: \u201cWe refuse to perpetuate, endorse, or repeat the choices that Botstein made to implicate Bard and specifically the Fisher Center in the facilitation of abuse and human trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe House Judiciary Committee\u2019s inquiry into Epstein\u2019s ties to Bard is led by Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the committee\u2019s ranking Democratic member. Botstein\u2019s legal representatives declined to comment on the inquiry. In a written statement to the Times<\/em>, however, Botstein reiterated his commitment to Bard and the classical music field.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBard has been my professional and intellectual home for six decades, and its success will never stop mattering to me,\u201d Botstein said. \u201cMy continuing involvement is about completing and keeping alive musical and artistic projects that are unique and contribute to Bard, and to the economy and life of the Hudson Valley as well as to the broader world of the arts.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI wish I\u2019d never met Epstein,\u201d he continued. \u201cI did not know then what a monster he was.\u201d Botstein said his friendship with Epstein was driven by \u201cmy urgent responsibilities to raise resources for an institution committed to the arts that was struggling to find donors who claimed to be interested in supporting the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n ARTnews<\/em> contacted Bard College for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/former-bard-president-resigns-college-affiliations-amid-inquiry-into-jeffrey-epstein-ties-1234801710\/”]<\/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, the former Bard College president of five decades, who retired this spring amid scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, resigned this week from all of his roles affiliated with the arts school. Botstein announced his retirement in May after a trove of documents collected by the […]<\/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-2187860","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\/2187860","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=2187860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}