Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak once gifted Jeffrey Epstein a signed map of Israel, preserving the moment on a chalkboard in the disgraced financier's Manhattan mansion.
According to a report by The New York Times, the autographed map of Israel accompanied a 2016 birthday letter in which Barak and his wife, Nili Priel, hailed Epstein as "a collector of people", praising his boundless curiosity and wishing him "many more years" of hosting friends at his table.
The letter, one of seven reviewed by The New York Times, was part of a leather-bound compilation presented to Epstein for his 63rd birthday. Its tone - celebratory and admiring - contrasted sharply with Epstein’s status at the time as a convicted sex offender.
Epstein’s long-rumoured links to Israeli intelligence agency Mossad have also fuelled speculation about the nature of his ties to high-level Israeli figures like Barak.
Another image from Epstein's mansion, published by the Times, showed the notorious paedophile alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) in his wood-panelled office. It had previously been reported that Epstein had boasted to a US journalist that MbS visited him "very often".
The 2019 report also noted Epstein's claims of proximity to the Saudi royal, adding to questions about the breadth of his high-level connections.
The photographs and letters shed new light on how Epstein maintained ties with political and cultural elites years after his 2008 Florida conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Other 2016 birthday tributes came from the media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, who jokingly suggested a meal "that would enhance Jeffrey’s sexual performance", and filmmaker Woody Allen, who likened the financier's dinners to Dracula's castle.
The list of correspondents also included linguist Noam Chomsky and his wife; entrepreneur Joichi Ito, who later resigned from MIT and the board of The New York Times Company over his Epstein ties; celebrity physicist Lawrence M. Krauss; and Harvard biologist Martin Nowak, who contributed a science-themed poem.
Inside the seven-storey, 21,000-square-foot townhouse, photographs revealed an eccentric and unsettling décor.
Dozens of framed prosthetic eyeballs lined the foyer, while a sculpture of a bride clutching a rope hung in a central atrium, in photos shared by the Times. The dining room featured leopard-print chairs around a large rectangular table, where guests - from celebrities to academics - sometimes watched magic tricks or chalkboard lectures.
A credenza in the mansion displayed framed snapshots of Epstein with Pope John Paul II, Mick Jagger, Elon Musk, Fidel Castro, Richard Branson, former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates - whose signed $1 bill read "I was wrong!" - and former Treasury secretary Larry Summers. A photo of Trump and his wife, Melania, was cropped to remove Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate.
Upstairs, the office contained a "taxidermied tiger" and a green first edition of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, the 1955 novel about an adult man’s sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.
The massage room displayed paintings of naked women, a large silver ball and chain, and shelves stocked with lubricant. According to victims, teenage girls, some recruited from Queens middle schools, were brought there to massage Epstein while he was naked. Court records say some encounters involved rape or assault.
The Trump administration had pledged to release details of federal investigations into Epstein and his associates, but reversed course this summer, sparking outrage within the MAGA movement, where Epstein is a central figure in conspiracy theories.
The Justice Department recently met with Maxwell, now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, before transferring her to a lower-security facility - a move that fuelled speculation about a possible commutation or pardon.