avant-garde. Diego Rivera famously inserted Marxist imagery
in his fresco “homage” to Ford Motor Co. at the Detroit
Institute of Arts in the 1930s: Forty years later artist Hans
Haacke installed a piece at New York’s Museum of Modern
Art that asked, “Would the fact that Governor Rockefeller
has not denounced President Nixon’s Indochina policy be
a reason for you not to vote for him in November?”—when
Rockefeller was on MoMA’s board.
In 2011 artist Andrea Fraser wrote an influential text that
stated “many of our patrons are actively working to preserve
the political and financial system that will keep their wealth,
and inequality, growing for decades to come.” The takeaway,
she continued, is that “what has been good for the art world
has been disastrous for the rest of the world.” Five years later
Fraser was given a solo show at the Whitney.
Museums argue they cannot afford to be too choosy about
whose gifts they will accept, given the paucity of major givers
across the board. “Historically, this country made a decision,
politically and economically, that cultural institutions, hospi-
tals, and universities would be primarily supported by private
philanthropy,” says Daniel Weiss, president and chief execu-
tive officer of the Met. “We’ve taken the view that the people
who support us should be honorable people doing upstand-
ing things. But we don’t subject them to scrutiny like, ‘Did
they make their money in areas that some of us might find
politically objectionable?’ ” he continues. “If the money isbeing put to good use, and serves the museum’s best interest,
and if the donor made those funds legally, we’re satisfied.”
This month, New York magazine published a list ranking
the city’s “most toxic museum boards” and put the Met at
the top, mostly because of its trustee emeritus David Koch,
an aggressive backer of right-wing efforts. Almost every major
museum in the city made the list: MoMA for Larry Fink, CEO
of BlackRock Inc. (a large shareholder in two companies that
contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement);
the American Museum of Natural History for Rebekah Mercer,
investor in Cambridge Analytica.
A solution, says Duncan, is for museums to preempt
criticism by diversifying boards in advance. “Change the
makeup and points of view on the board so that there’s some
self-checking going on,” she says. “If you become too reli-
ant on one point of view, that’s where you get in trouble.”
Weiss says the Met is open to change. “It may well be that
in the coming years there will be pressure to do things dif-
ferently, and we’ll be open to that discussion. But for the
moment, we feel comfortable that what we’re doing is sensi-
ble, ethical, and strategic.”
But as long as museums rely on private funds, Duncan
says, there isn’t much they can do—and the protests will keep
coming. “It’s impossible to replace a major philanthropic
component of your operating budget with someone who has
no [negative] exposure at all.” <BW>61PREVIOUS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES (2), SETH WENIG/AP PHOTO, TAMARA RODRIGUES REICHBERG (2). THIS SPREAD: GOLDIN: DENIS ALLARD/REA/REDUX PICTURES. HARVARD: TAMARA RODRIGUEZ REICHBERG
Bloomberg Pursuits August 19, 2019