When the feds finally breached the doors of Jeffrey Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse, the world expected to find evidence of crimes. They found that, sure. But they also found a decor style that could only be described as "aggressively unsettling." Among the life-sized dolls and the weirdly placed photos was a specific piece of art that sent the internet into a tailspin.
People call it the George Bush painting, and honestly, it’s even weirder than the one of Bill Clinton in the blue dress.
While the Clinton portrait got most of the initial headlines because of the dress, the depiction of George W. Bush was arguably more pointed. It wasn't just a portrait. It was a scene. If you’ve seen the grainy photos leaked from the mansion, you know the one. It shows the 43rd president sitting on the floor of the Oval Office. He’s surrounded by paper airplanes. There are two "towers" of Jenga blocks or children’s building blocks on the floor.
It looks like a nursery for a very powerful, very distracted man.
The Artist Behind the George Bush Painting
Most people assume Epstein commissioned these paintings to mock his powerful "friends" or to show off some kind of leverage. That’s a juicy theory, but the truth is a bit more mundane.
The artist is Petrina Ryan-Kleid. Back in 2012, she was a grad student at the New York Academy of Art. She wasn't some secret agent or a personal painter for billionaires. She was just a student working on her Master’s thesis. She actually painted both the Clinton and Bush pieces as a pair.
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The George Bush painting is titled War Games.
Ryan-Kleid has been pretty open about the fact that she had no idea Epstein ended up with her work. She sold them at a school fundraiser—the Tribeca Ball—for a few thousand dollars. She didn't track the buyer. It wasn't until the 2019 raids and the subsequent media firestorm that she realized her school project was hanging in the home of one of the world's most notorious predators.
She's gone on record saying the paintings were meant to be satirical. Basically, she was exploring how the media and the public caricature presidents. For Clinton, it was the Lewinsky scandal. For Bush, it was the "war on terror" and the 9/11 imagery.
Why Was it in the Mansion?
The placement of the George Bush painting in the Epstein residence is where things get murky. According to visitors who spoke to the Daily Mail and The New York Post, the artwork was displayed prominently.
It wasn't hidden in a basement.
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It was in a room where guests would see it immediately. Now, why would a guy who reportedly cultivated ties with the political elite keep a painting that mocks them in his living room?
Some psychologists and criminal profilers suggest it was a power move. Epstein loved showing people that he was "in" but also "above" the system. Having a painting of a former president playing with paper airplanes near falling towers is a heavy-handed way of saying you don't respect the office. Or maybe he just thought it was funny. With a guy like Epstein, "twisted" was the baseline.
The painting itself features Bush in a dark suit, sitting cross-legged. He's looking down at a paper airplane in his hands. The "towers" of blocks next to him are clearly meant to evoke the Twin Towers. It’s a literal representation of the "Bush knew" or "9/11 was a game" conspiracy theories that were rampant in the mid-2000s.
Separating Fact from Fiction
You've probably seen some wild claims on social media about this. Let's clear some stuff up:
- Did Bush paint it? No. George W. Bush became a prolific painter after his presidency, mostly focusing on puppies and world leaders, but he definitely didn't paint a satirical version of himself.
- Was it a secret signal? Internet sleuths love to think so. They claim the paper airplanes represent specific flights or that the blocks have hidden codes. There is zero evidence for this. It was a student art project.
- Is it still there? After Epstein's death and the liquidation of his estate, the physical assets were cataloged. The house was eventually sold and gutted. The current whereabouts of the original canvas aren't publicly confirmed, though many of his belongings were sold off to pay into the victims' compensation fund.
The Cultural Impact of the Artwork
The George Bush painting became a symbol of the "Epstein didn't kill himself" era of internet culture. It fed into the idea that there was a secret world where the elite mocked the public while engaging in horrific behavior.
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Even if the artist's intent was just a "silly school artwork," the context changed the meaning. Art is funny like that. Once it hangs on the wall of a sex trafficker, the satire stops feeling like a joke and starts feeling like an omen.
Petrina Ryan-Kleid eventually moved back to Australia and has tried to distance herself from the whole thing. Can you blame her? Imagine your student thesis being the backdrop for a federal investigation into international sex trafficking.
Actionable Takeaways for Evaluating the Story
If you're looking into this or similar artifacts from the Epstein case, keep these steps in mind to avoid the rabbit hole of misinformation:
- Verify the Source of the Image: Most of the photos of the painting in the house came from a guest who took them years before the raid. Cross-reference these with the artist's own portfolio to confirm what's real and what's photoshopped.
- Understand "Provenances": Just because a bad person owns a piece of art doesn't mean the art was created for them. In this case, the chain of custody started at a public art school fundraiser.
- Check Auction Records: If you are curious about where these items end up, look at the filings from the Epstein Restitution Fund. They had to account for a lot of the physical property to compensate survivors.
- Look for the Satire: When you see a "weird" political painting, ask if it was part of a larger series. Usually, these pieces are part of a collection that mocks everyone across the political aisle, which was exactly the case with Ryan-Kleid's work.
The George Bush painting remains one of the most bizarre footnotes in a story that is already overflowing with them. It’s a reminder that sometimes the truth is just a weird coincidence that happens to fit perfectly into a much darker narrative.