A recently released set of files related to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein has implied that his ties to collector Leslie Wexner, the former Victoria's Secret CEO, ran deeper than previously thought. An FBI email released by the Department of Justice referred to potential “co-conspirators” who worked with Epstein, and while heavily redacted, the message clearly references Wexner, the namesake collector behind the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Wexner's spokesperson denied the implication, stating that he was “neither a co-conspirator nor target in any respect” in the inquiry.
This matters because Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail are prominent figures in the art world, having appeared on the annual ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list from 2003 to 2018 and owning major works by modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. The renewed scrutiny of Wexner's relationship with Epstein could affect his reputation as a collector and philanthropist, particularly given his connection to the Wexner Center for the Arts, a major institution in Columbus, Ohio.