Art billionaire and collector Leon Black investigated over financial dealings with Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein (left) with Leon Black (right) and Pepe FanjulJoe Schildhorn / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Leon Black, the bigwig American investor and art collector, is the latest high profile figure to be dragged into the Jeffrey Epstein debacle. The sexagenarian who owns a version of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream (and who reportedly paid $119.9 million for it, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction at that time) is under scrutiny from officials in the US Virgin Islands over his decades-long ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Black, who is the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, known as MoMA, and founder of the Wall Street investment firm Apollo Global Management, is the subject of civil subpoenas (or witness summons) being sought by the territory’s attorney-general, according to the New York Times . They want Black to hand over information about his long-running business ties to the convicted sex offender, Epstein, who was found dead in jail last August.

The subpoenas, copies of which were filed with the court, seek financial statements and tax returns for a number of entities, including his management company Black Family Partners and Elysium Management that oversees his $8.3 billion fortune and private art collection, which features work by Raphael, Daniel Bomberg and Picasso.