Museum Backlash and Market Shakeups Worldwide

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and designer John Galliano have called off a planned Costume Institute exhibition that would have honored his work. In a statement on Monday, 31 August, Met director and chief executive Max Hollein said that after “thoughtful discussions” with Galliano, they decided not to proceed. The show had been announced on 31 July and was slated to open in early May 2027, timed to the Met Gala, then run in the new Condé Nast Galleries until January 2028. Opposition surged because of Galliano’s history of antisemitic statements and his 2011 conviction in France. Galliano said he didn’t want the debate to distract from the Costume Institute and acknowledged the pain his words caused.

Staying in London, the Science Museum is ending its sponsorship relationship with BP after nearly 25 years. The Science Museum Group confirmed on Friday, 28 August that the partnership will close on 31 August “at the end of its agreed term,” though The Times reported the current deal, which began in 2018, had been described as a ten-year agreement expected to run until 2028. BP’s support has included the former Energy Gallery and the 2015 exhibition Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age. The change follows sustained criticism of fossil-fuel links, including a teacher boycott campaign backed by the National Education Union. Campaigners called the end of BP support a victory, while noting the museum still has a sponsorship relationship with Adani Green Energy.

Korea’s new Art Promotion Act—its first law governing the art market—has gotten off to a shaky start. Part one took effect on 26 July, but the enforcement decree appeared just two days before implementation, and an implementing rule followed in the official gazette on 27 July. There’s still no electronic filing system, and municipal officials processing paperwork received just one training session three days before the rules began. The law requires registration across six categories of art businesses, from galleries and auctioneers to advisers and appraisers, with around five thousand businesses affected. A one-year grace period runs until 25 July 2027, after which fines of up to 5m won can apply. The registration rollout is also tied to resale royalty rules planned for 2027.

In Vienna, the Vienna Actionism Museum is bracing for controversy ahead of its Otto Muehl retrospective. The exhibition, “Otto Muehl: Art on the Precipice,” is set to open September 10 and run through January 10, 2027, featuring 150 paintings, objects, film, and prints from the museum and private collectors. Muehl, a co-founder of Viennese Actionism, also founded the Friedrichshof commune, and in 1991 he was convicted of sexual offenses against minors, rape, and illegal drug use; he served seven years in prison and later died in Portugal in 2013. Der Standard reported that former victims have criticized the museum’s marketing for glossing over his crimes. The museum says the show includes no images depicting abuse and excludes the “Accidents in the Home” series.

In the UK, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has backtracked on returning the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. After becoming prime minister in July, Burnham told the Financial Times: “Ultimately [returning the Marbles is] an issue for the British Museum, isn’t it?” adding that legally “that’s where that issue rests,” while backing “British cultural diplomacy.” That contrasts with his February 2023 remarks, when he was mayor of Greater Manchester and said, “Yes, George Osborne should give the Elgin Marbles back,” and posted on X: “Send [the Marbles] back, no strings.” The Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport echoed that collection decisions sit with British Museum trustees. The British Museum cites the British Museum Act 1963 as preventing return, while discussions continue about possible loans.

In Germany, two children of the dealer Serop Simonian have been convicted of money laundering in Hamburg, according to AFP. On 24 August, the city criminal court ordered the confiscation of €32m and issued fines totalling more than €one hundred twenty thousand. The children’s names were not disclosed, but the charges correspond to Abraham Simonian and his sister Alice Simonian Schad. The court indicated they were involved in sales to a museum in the United Arab Emirates, including a bust of Cleopatra, a stela bearing the name of Tutankhamun, and a princess’s funerary set; these and other artefacts were sold to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, alongside a golden sarcophagus bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Confiscations totaled €26m from Abraham and €6m from Alice; both have appealed, and a separate gang-trafficking charge against Abraham was dropped for lack of evidence.

At the British Museum, a VIP preview of the Bayeux Tapestry drew internal concern after Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel attended on August 18, according to a Guardian report cited by Hyperallergic. The museum declined to comment to Hyperallergic, and it remains unclear whether Thiel was part of a larger group allowed to view the 11th-century tapestry before the public exhibition begins September 10. Staff concerns included the idea that a private viewing might limit public access, since the museum must control the tapestry’s light exposure to prevent damage. Thiel reportedly has not donated to the British Museum personally or through his businesses. The visit was said to be facilitated by the museum’s director of development, and board chair George Osbourne neither met with nor attended the viewing.

In Gwangju, South Korea, city officials apologized after a controversy over the Gwangju Biennale’s Taiwan Pavilion. Promotional materials had at one point altered the pavilion’s name to the NTMoFA Pavilion, referencing the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, before the pavilion was retitled following an outcry and an open letter from participating artists. Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture alleged the change amounted to “political censorship,” while the biennial denied it was intended to appease China, which does not recognize Taiwan as a nation and also has a pavilion in Gwangju. China then ordered its pavilion’s artists not to show and halted work on their presentation. On Monday, Jeonnam Gwangju City said the pavilion title did not signal a shift in “respecting one China” and apologized for “insufficient communication.”

In New York, “Marina,” a performance by Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez, premiered at Manhattan’s Little Island last week as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial program. The piece takes a comedic approach to technology, staging an underwater world where Marina, a sea wench played by Gutierrez, becomes transfixed after a construction worker drops a smartphone into the water. The story follows her plunge into scrolls, highlight reels, and influencer logic about self-worth, while riffing on familiar narratives—from Homer’s Odyssey to Euripides’s Medea to Jennifer’s Body. Marina posts a selfie and uploads it to OkCupid, then creates an alter-ego modeled on Disney’s Ariel. A detective narrator and a garbageman named Dino enter the plot as disappearances mount, and the show builds its satire through spectacle and absurd detail.

A Keith Haring drawing deemed authentic by a judge still couldn’t clear the market hurdles at major auction houses. According to Greenwich Time, Nevada businessman Vernon Hartung bought a Haring drawing of flying saucers from Martin Lawrence Galleries for one hundred sixty five thousand dollars in 2018. When he explored selling it through Christie’s and Sotheby’s, both auction houses said the work’s documented history didn’t meet their requirements for selling a Haring drawing as an authentic work, according to trial records. The gallery then tried to sell it for Hartung, but he rejected potential prices of twenty thousand dollars to thirty thousand dollars and sued for breach of contract and claims under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. In May, Judge Robert L. Genuario found the drawing authentic and Hartung lost, owing the gallery’s attorney’s fees.

That’s the download for today—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more art world news you can actually use, and until then: Chinga la migra

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