Donald Trump has always maintained that the Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘Two Sisters’ painting in his New York apartment is the original but on Thursday, Art Institute of Chicago disagreed and insisted that the real ‘Two Sisters on the Terrace’ by Renoir is hanging on its walls and not Trump’s.
Amanda Hicks, a spokeswoman for the institute told the Chicago Tribune that the institute was “satisfied that our version is real.”
The Renoir was gifted to the institute in 1933 by Annie Swan Coburn, who bought it from Paul Durand Ruel for $100,000. It was painted in 1881, with an inscription at the lower right that reads, “Renoir ’81.”
Tim O’Brien, the president’s biographer, told Vanity Fair’s ‘Inside the Hive’ podcast last week that he told Trump that the president did not have the original, when he spotted the painting inside of his private jet in 2005.
The curious writer asked Trump about the work, which the now-president declared was an original Renoir. O’Brien challenged him, saying, “No, it’s not Donald.”
When Trump insisted that it was, O’Brien said, “Donald, it’s not. I grew up in Chicago, that Renoir is called ‘Two Sisters on the Terrace’, and it’s hanging on a wall at the Art Institute of Chicago.”
The next day, while on the jet again, Trump pointed out the painting and said, as if the previous day’s conversation had never occurred, “You know, that’s an original Renoir.”
O’Brien said he decided not to pursue the conversation. Years later, the painting made its way into Trump Tower in New York City, where it was visible in the background of a Fox News interview with Melania Trump during his presidential campaign in March 2016.
“I’m sure he’s still telling people who come into the apartment, ‘It’s an original, it’s an original,’” O’Brien said in the podcast.
“He believes his own lies in a way that lasts for decades,” O’Brien continued. “He’ll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.”
Neither Trump nor the White House has responded yet.