John Galliano withdraws from Met Museum exhibition following backlash

Facing an intense backlash, influential fashion designer John Galliano has taken the unprecedented step of withdrawing from a planned exhibition in his honour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“After much reflection and discussion with all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time,” Galliano wrote in a statement posted to his Instagram page.

He also expressed “profound and enduring” gratitude to the museum’s leadership, and acknowledged the pain his past words had caused.

“I do not want the debate surrounding me to place the Met in a difficult position or distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute,” he wrote. “I also recognise and respect that an exhibition honouring my work would be painful for some.”

In a statement Monday, Max Hollein, the director of the Met, said, “Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition.”

The cancellation came at a time when a number of donors and political leaders were coming forward to express their opposition to the nine-month exhibition, which had been scheduled to begin with next year’s Met Gala.

In recent days, a furor mounted over the museum’s choice to honour Galliano, who was convicted of an antisemitic hate crime by a French court in 2011. He would have been only the third living designer to receive a solo exhibition at the Costume Institute, the Met’s fashion wing.

Given that the Met Gala has traditionally served as the opening night for the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, the plan risked placing the museum in the position of seeming to sanctify Galliano during an event that has become the Super Bowl of glamour.

Galliano’s departure became known on Monday, just as key members of the Met’s board of trustees were scheduled to gather for a morning meeting to discuss the fate of the exhibition. Museum leadership had also called a Zoom meeting of the board for Monday at 4pm to “focus on a discussion of the Costume Institute,” according to an email invitation that was shared with The New York Times .

On Friday, The New York Times quoted Jewish leaders who spoke out against the planned exhibition. They included Arne Glimcher, an art world titan who threatened to cut the museum out of his will; Julie Menin, the speaker of the City Council; and Elisha Wiesel, the chair of the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

The Met is one of the 39 arts institutions operating on city-owned property, and it receives millions of dollars of annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Its ties to the city made its decision to honour Galliano a political issue.

Menin sent a letter to Met leadership late last week, becoming the first local politician to oppose the planned Galliano exhibition. In an interview Sunday, Menin, a Democrat, called the since-cancelled show “a gut punch to the Jewish community in our city, who are already reeling”.

In 2011, a French tribunal ruled that Galliano had made hateful remarks about Jews and Asians in two incidents at a bar near his home in Paris.