Even after John Galliano pulled out of a planned retrospective of his career that was scheduled to debut in May at the Costume Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art continued to face the fallout from the highly controversial plans to hold the exhibition.
As reported, the fashion designer bowed out Monday with an Instagram post that said he does not want the debate surrounding him “to place The Met in a difficult position or to distract from the remarkable work of the Costume Institute.” Even before “John Galliano: Reflections” was greenlighted, The Met appeared to recognize the potential backlash and tried to sidestep that by first consulting with leading rabbis and figures in the Jewish community, including representatives from the Anti-Defamation League.
While some praised Galliano’s immeasurable talent as a fashion designer, others were appalled by the choice, given his previous offenses and the rise of antisemitic attacks in New York City and internationally. One Met donor suggested Tuesday that the museum and The Met Gala’s co-chair Anna Wintour had set “a bonfire,” by focusing on Galliano in such contentious times. The furor was stoked by the realization that The Met Gala‘s scheduled date of May 3, 2027, coincides with the Jewish holiday of Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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The furor around the planned exhibit also engulfed Wintour, with some criticizing her as being out of touch and failing to heed others’ advice. Wintour, however, in her statement Monday regarding Galliano’s decision, continued to fully back the designer. Effusively praising his talents, she said his decision to pull out of the exhibit was “very courageous and a measure of the man he is,”
The New York Times ran a front-page story on Aug. 30 about the increasing backlash that was partially put in motion by New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin criticizing the decision. Although Galliano apologized for the hurt he caused the Jewish and Asian communities in his post Monday, many on social media continue to criticize the designer, The Met, The Met Gala’s co-chair Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator in charge of the decision.
Now the stakes are high for the museum to bridge the divide with members of the Jewish community and donors, and to pull together another exhibition within an eight-month timeframe as opposed to the typical window of a year. Museum officials are said to be mapping out what’s next and doing some major damage control with leading donors. Media requests to several Met board members and supporters were unreturned. Julia Koch politely declined to comment via a spokesperson.
One individual, who is close to The Met, said they are confident that whatever is decided on for the spring show will be “spectacular and very intellectual, because that is who Andrew [Bolton] is.” The source added, “I wish them well. They have a rough road ahead, given that they are four months short on time,” the source said. “They know that they have to step up to the plate and then some.”
The source said that the John Galliano controversy would not impact their plans to make future donations.
How The Met might bridge the divide with members of the Jewish community is another concern. Tamar Major, national director of the Yad Vashem USA Foundation, suggested that the museum could “use its remarkable platform to educate the public about antisemitism” by creating a major exhibition to show how “art and culture can either normalize hatred or stand against it.” Major said, “At a time when antisemitism is rising, such an exhibition could reach millions. Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, would gladly share its full resources and expertise with The Met to help bring it to life.”
The Met declined to comment further Tuesday or to offer any updates. Bolton, who is said to be away, joined the museum in 2002 as an associate curator at the Costume Institute after a nine-year run at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. After taking on the top job in 2005, he is known to be dogged in his research, complex in his ideology and a workaholic. His team at the Costume Institute is said to start working on a new exhibition within a week of the last one closing.
One Met donor, who requested anonymity, said that the Galliano show was considered “a step too far” by the Jewish philanthropists who serve on The Met’s board. “There was a definite war between art and commerce, between power and glamour. And you know who won,” he said.
As to why the top-tier ultra-wealthy board members are not speaking out publicly, he said, “The reason is nobody wants to become a target. Look at [the luxury tax on second homes dispute between New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and [Citadel CEO] Ken Griffin. Nobody wants people protesting outside of their house or attacking them at restaurants. You can get anybody’s address these days.”
The source added, “It was too much of a bonfire to risk. They threatened to leave them out of their wills and pull back their stated gifts. It would have cost The Met billions of dollars.”
Sponsors of the museum were also speaking out about the choice of Galliano, according to the source. Despite being “an artistic force” and seemingly forgivable for having met with senior-level rabbis, Galliano had some support but not enough to go forward, the donor said.
While the Costume Institute is the museum’s only department that is responsible for raising its funds for “every salary, every exhibition, every staple, and every bow,” the source said as impressive as the Wintour fundraising has been, it does not stack up to Leonard Lauder’s $1.1 billion Cubist collection gift, or Ronald Lauder’s plans to donate his Neue Galerie New York collection, which is valued at $1.5 billion. “Stand that up to the billions of dollars in art and funding, and bequests, including future ones. It just pales in comparison,” he said.
“We now have the answer to the question as to who really holds the power at The Met. There is no single person, and no single department has control of The Met,” the aforementioned donor said. Praising the decisions that were made by Hollein, Anna Wintour and the board, the source noted how Galliano’s statement noted that he was withdrawing the exhibition from being held at this time, which left the door open, he said.
While many critics continue to air their views on social media about the controversy and the fallout, Diane von Furstenberg said that she thought Galliano’s letter was sincere.
One museum insider asked, “At what point do we forgive someone?”
Meanwhile, Galliano’s launch of a collaborative collection with Zara is scheduled for next month. Media requests to Zara and its parent company Inditex inquiring whether that will go forward were unreturned Tuesday.
A few sources mentioned how The Met has a list of exhibition ideas, and that some procurement for the 2028 Costume Institute show was already underway. Although the focus of that is not yet being shared publicly, moving up the 2028 show is said to be under consideration by The Met’s brass. While one source questioned whether the museum would postpone its spring exhibition, a few others said there is never a shortage of exhibition ideas but the question is whether they can coordinate everything in time.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for The Met to find a sponsor for a new show. One had not been confirmed for the now canceled Galliano retrospective. One source said The Met was said to have had a sponsor or was close to having one for the Galliano show. But sponsors aren’t always transferable commodities and typically hinge on the financially beneficial aspects of supporting the focus of a specific show.
Further heightening those challenges is the fact that The Met recently turned up the spotlight on the Costume Institute with the May opening of the Condé M. Nast Galleries, a 12,000-square-foot main-floor space designed by Peterson Rich. Located steps from the Great Hall and consisting of five spaces within one space, the new galleries are housed in prime real estate.
In recent years, the Costume Institute’s shows and the Met Gala’s media bonanza have helped to attract new visitors and contributed to reeling in a more diverse audience. More than 1.7 million people checked out the “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” in 2018, which made it the most-visited exhibition in the museum’s history. And through limited-run product collaborations with designers like Tory Burch, Michael Kors and Thom Browne, The Met has significantly stepped up its museum shop offerings beyond totes and T-shirts.
And last year’s Met Gala generated a record-breaking $31 million for the Costume Institute. Wintour has been instrumental in bolstering donations to the Costume Institute with some estimates at $250 million. As co-chair of The Met Gala, the Condé Nast chief content officer has also turned the annual fundraiser into a celebrity-studded global spectacle. Last year’s event generated a record-breaking $1.38 billion in Media Impact Value, according to Launchmetrics. Such worldwide coverage has also been a boom to the designers, luxury brands and fine jewelry companies that adorn the VIPs that walk the red carpeted steps to enter the Upper East Side museum at the Met Gala.
