Fact Check: Claims About 'John Podesta Art' Reappear amid Balenciaga Uproar

The ongoing furor over Balenciaga's campaign photos featuring children has now spilled over into the political world, resuscitating old conspiracy tropes featuring President Joe Biden's senior advisor John Podesta and supposedly "disturbing" artwork.

Over the past several days, Balenciaga has been under scrutiny over since-removed ad campaign images on its website that showed toddlers holding the company's teddy bear handbags. The stuffed toys appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, including fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.

While Balenciaga apologized for the campaign and pulled the images, the fashion brand has faced criticism from public figures. Balenciaga brand ambassador Kim Kardashian recently stated that she was "disgusted" and "shaken" by the images and was "re-evaluating" her relationship with the beleaguered company.

But the conversation around the scandal soon began to intertwine with existing conspiracy theories and QAnon-driven narratives seen in the heyday of the debunked "pizzagate" controversy.

The Claim

As social media users cast their net of scrutiny wider amid continued criticism of Balenciaga, Podesta—who served as chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign—was this week dragged into the conversation.

On Thursday, a Twitter user shared a collage of images that included artwork depicting young girls sitting with their arms behind their backs, as well as a boy suspended from a ceiling by his arms.

Using the hashtag "#BurnBalenciaga," the Twitter user added the caption: "Wait until y'all see Hilary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta's artwork."

Among the images that were shared in the collage were a photo of Podesta, as well as a snapshot of his brother, power lobbyist Tony Podesta.

The post, which has received more than 17,500 likes and 7,700 retweets, was met with a chorus of outrage. A number of people on the social media platform called the images "disturbing," as they accepted, without any reservations, the claim that Podesta had created or owned such works.

Many of the conservative-leaning account's followers used the post as an opportunity to revive the baseless conspiracy theory that a swathe of high-ranking Democratic Party officials are involved in a child sex and human trafficking ring, run through the basement of a non-existent pizza shop.

The false theory is widely referred to as Pizzagate, and has its roots in QAnon-linked online spaces.

The Dr. Interracial account holder could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Facts

While the viral tweet described the pieces in the collage as "John Podesta's artwork," the White House operative did not produce any of the art in the image. There is also no evidence that he owns any such pieces.

The paintings depicted are the work of Serbian artist Biljana Đurđević, and some are owned by Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta.

In a 2015 interview with Washington Life, Tony Podesta spoke about his extensive art collection; it was revealed in the article that he owned paintings by Đurđević. It was not specified in the article which of the painter's pieces he owned.

In the interview, the elder Podesta brother revealed that he had donated thousands of pieces of his art to a number of prominent museums, including the National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

"My plan for the collection is to donate it slowly over the course of my lifetime to museums and give the rest away after I pass," he said. "People who enjoy success should be giving back and sharing the gifts they have received. Most of my philanthropy occurs in the art world with my donations."

Elsewhere in the article, it was noted that Tony Podesta hosted much of his artwork in his basement. It was also revealed that he regularly welcomed guests into his home, where his friend, restaurateur, and owner of D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong James Alefantis, would host casual pizza parties.

This fact has been used by conspiracy theorists as part of the fabricated Pizzagate claims, with the crux of the allegations relying on emails stolen from the personal account of Podesta and published by WikiLeaks in 2016.

While the so-called "Podesta emails" contained multiple newsworthy revelations—including the content of speeches Clinton delivered to Goldman Sachs and the leak of questions to the Clinton campaign in advance of a CNN town hall with 2016 Democratic primary opponent Bernie Sanders—Pizzagate was built on the unsubstantiated claim that certain words within the emails were in fact coded allusions to child sex trafficking.

Security experts also warned at the time that the leak likely mixed genuine communications with fabricated material, which is a common method of planting disinformation.

"I've looked at a lot of document dumps provided by hacker groups over the years, and in almost every case you can find a few altered or entirely falsified documents," Jeffrey Carr, CEO of the cybersecurity company Taia Global, had told Politifact. "But only a few. The vast majority were genuine. I believe that's the case with the Podesta emails, as well."

Despite their questionable accuracy and authenticity, the leaks prompted arbitrary associations by conspiracy theorists, who grasped onto various food-related terms, including "cheese," "map," "walnut sauce" and, of course, "pizza," to claim they were actually coded indications of people's preferred child victims.

No alleged victims have come forward and no physical evidence has been found in relation to the conspiracy, which was widely discredited and debunked by, among others, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.

It is also not clear how and why the social media posts tied the artwork, which in itself does not serve as evidence of child abuse or anything nefarious, to Balenciaga, other than through the similarity of some of the false and misleading tropes around the two stories.

Addressing the resurrected conspiracy claims, Tony Podesta confirmed that he does own some of the Serbian artist's the work, but told Newsweek that claims tying his brother to it are false. "I own the work and John has nothing to do with this," Tony Podesta said.

"I get an image of Biljana's work every week from conspiracy theorists and wingnuts saying it's proof positive that John and I, and everybody else, are involved in this ring of child abuse in the basement of a [pizza parlor]. John has never owned the work.

"I have quite a number of her paintings. The wingnuts and conspiracy theorists have discovered this and decided that it's proof that I'm a pervert. It's certainly not true that John has any interest in or owns this art. I don't even know if he likes it."

Newsweek also reached out to John Podesta for comment.

The Ruling

False.

John Podesta did not create the artwork depicted in the viral tweet, and there is no evidence that he owns any of the Đurđević paintings shown in the collage.

While it was revealed in a 2015 Washington Life interview that Tony Podesta is in ownership of pieces by Đurđević, it was not stated on the record how many he is in possession of, or whether he owned the works shown in the tweet.

Beside the non-sequitur use of the "Burnbalenciaga" hashtag in the tweet, for which no further explanation or context was offered by the author, there is no known or purported relationship linking the Podestas with the fashion brand, and the recent scandal surrounding it.

FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK