For decades, Leon Black cultivated a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable art collectors, scooping up truckloads of museum-worthy masterpieces. But ongoing revelations of Black’s yearslong affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein—most notably, paying the convicted sex offender the vastly above-market rate sum of $170 million for financial and tax advice over a six-year period—have tarnished his reputation. In March 2021 Black resigned as CEO of Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm he founded, and a few days later he stepped down as chair of the Museum of Modern Art’s board of trustees.

Now, the latest batch of Epstein files show how Epstein helped Black turn his art collection into a sophisticated financial asset. Far from functioning solely as a personal passion, Black’s trove of Picassos, Cézannes and Monets was systematically structured, valued and leveraged so that Black could borrow against them on a massive scale. Epstein helped manage and organize the collection, transforming illiquid paintings into bankable collateral that could be pledged for large loans—allowing Black to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.

Entities controlled by Black put up $1 billion worth of art as collateral for a loan from Bank of America as of 2014, according to an Epstein files document titled “Art Partnership Inventory.” The value of Black’s collateralized art (works he had borrowed against) had grown to $1.4 billion by 2017, according to a second document titled “Collateral,” which contains many of the same works of art. Some of the most valuable works of art that Black collateralized for loans........

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