Members of the Wexner Center for the Arts union have called on university leadership to rename the institution, citing Leslie Wexner’s documented ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Wexner Workers United announced on social media yesterday that it had sent a formal letter to Ohio State University president, provost, and board of trustees demanding that they remove the Wexner name from the building’s facade and begin the process of renaming the Wexner Center for the Arts.
“As a contemporary arts center showcasing and commissioning the work of our present time, we are inherently entwined with the relevant and urgent events of today,” the letter reads. “Jeffrey Epstein’s orchestration of a high-profile sex-trafficking operation has long been established, and Les Wexner’s name appears more than 1,300 times in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files.”
In the letter—posted in full on Instagram—the union argues that Wexner’s connection to Epstein meets the university’s criteria for requesting a building name change, citing “substantial evidence of misconduct or other inappropriate behavior by the individual or entity.” Furthermore, the letter argues that retaining the Wexner name undermines the university’s stated commitment to “excellence,” as well as its values of “integrity and inclusiveness”—all criteria cited in the institution’s policy governing building name changes.
“Our staff members, including many Ohio State students, are being harassed on a daily basis because the Wexner name is on our building,” the letter continues. “Artists are choosing not to work with us because of the Wexner’s close association with Epstein.”
As the union notes, there is recent precedent for renaming spaces at major art institutions under similar circumstances. In 2019, the Louvre Museum removed the Sackler name from its galleries amid accusations that the family had amassed its fortune while helping fuel the opioid crisis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art—facing pressure from a number of high-profile artists, including Kara Walker, Nan Goldin, and Ai Weiwei—followed suit two years later, as did the Serpentine Galleries and the Guggenheim Museum, among others.
Leslie Wexner, the founder of Bath & Body Works and a prominent art collector, became the subject of renewed scrutiny in 2024 after his name appeared in unsealed court documents related to a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein, who died by reported suicide in 2019. Those documents, along with additional tranches released last year by the Department of Justice, under pressure from Congress, widely referred to as the “Epstein Files,” iplicated powerful figures across the business and political spheres in a sex-trafficking operation orchestrated by Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Wexner’s name on our building does a profound disservice to the incredible artists we work with and to our community members who deserve to engage with art without feeling complicity in supporting human traffickers, rapists, and pedophiles,” the letter concludes.
Wexner has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity. However, their relationship had already come under public scrutiny by 2002, when a feature published in New York Magazine examined what it described as a “weird relationship” involving a high-end housing development project financed largely by Wexner.
ARTnews has reached out to Wexner Workers United and the Wexner Center for the Arts for comment.
