A range of politicians and public figures have criticized the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for its forthcoming controversial John Galliano show, including dealer Arne Glimcher, the founder of Pace Gallery, one of the biggest such entreprises in the world.
A New York Times report published on Friday revealed that the Met has privately faced criticism over the exhibition for Galliano, a fashion designer who was convicted of a hate crime in France in 2011 for antisemitic comments. He later apologized for these comments and went to rehab. He returned to the industry as creative director of Maison Margiela, a role he held from 2014 to 2024.
The Galliano show is poised to be the Costume Institute’s big May show for next year. But according to the Times, some have warned that mounting the show in that slot may not be a good decision.
As Times reporters Vanessa Friedman and Jacob Bernstein point out, the Met Gala, a highly publicized annual event associated with the Costume Institute’s spring show, is known for taking place on the first Monday in May. Next year, that Monday happens to be Yom HaShoah, otherwise known as Holocaust Remembrance day.
The Times reported that multiple donors have threatened to rescind or withhold gifts since the announcement of the Galliano show in July. Among those donors, it seems, is Glimcher, who reportedly emailed David Breslin, the Met curator in charge of the modern and contemporary art department, to describe his dissatisfaction.
“I don’t think you have considered the cost of this action and its reverberations to come,” Glimcher wrote in the email, according to the Times. He went on to write that he and his wife Milly were “seriously reconsidering other works that have been earmarked from our collection to the Met in our wills,” though it was not clear which works those were and whether or not Glimcher had formalized any promised gifts to the museum.
ARTnews has reached out to Pace Gallery for comment.
Glimcher has previously donated to the Met, gifting it works by Agnes Martin, Lucas Samara, Robert Mangold, and Mark Rothko over the years. With his son, Marc, and former daughter-in-law, Fairfax Dorn, they donated a 1981 Julian Schnabel painting on the ocassion of the Met’s 150th anniversary. All these artists have long been represented by Pace.
The Times article also quoted Elisha Wiesel, the daughter of the writer Elie Wiesel, who described the Galliano show as a “pretty bad idea.” The article also mentioned Julie Menin, the speaker of New York’s City Council, who reportedly wrote that the exhibition was “a serious mistake” in a letter addressed to Met director Max Hollein, Costume Institute head Andrew Bolton, and Vogue editorial director Anna Wintour, who has helped shape the Costume Institute into what it is today and is a co-chair of the Met Gala.
These criticisms have reportedly moved Met board members to discuss the show further. Andrew Solomon, one such board member, told the Times that “confronting cancel culture is a healthier way to go forward than bowing to it.”
Previously, the Times reported that the Met had conferred with representatives of Jewish groups on the exhibition.
In a statement to the Times this week, Hollein said, “The Met has no tolerance for antisemitism, racism or prejudice of any kind. We are in close consultation with Jewish leaders and other stakeholders, and we take the concerns we’ve heard very seriously.”
A Met spokesperson did not immediately respond to ARTnews’s request for comment.
