On Friday, the US Department of Justice publicly released over three million additional documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.
Tucked into those files is a copy of a donation check dated April 29, 2014 for $5,000 from Enhanced Education, a long-running foundation set up by Epstein that was once portrayed as a “charitable powerhouse,” according to the New York Times. The recipient of the donation: none other than the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with the amount earmarked to the Costume Institute Benefit, otherwise known as the Met Gala.
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The documents released Friday are the second tranche of files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in November.
While Epstein is known to have moved through elite circles in the art, political, and entertainment worlds that are often represented at the Gala, he has never been reported as an attendee or a donor to the event.
Epstein was a prolific donor to various politicians, organizations, and universities, with his donations to Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of $9.1 million and $850,000, respectively, coming under particular scrutiny in recent years.
Epstein also served as a board member of the New York Academy of Art, from 1987 to 1994.
A Metropolitan Museum of Art spokesperson did not immediately respond to ARTnews’s request for comment.
