Kennedy Center Donors Try to Reclaim Artworks Amid 'Destruction' Plan

Kennedy Center officials have been working since at least late last year on a plan that proposed the "disposal" of artworks — "by return to country of origin, transfer or exchange with another institution, public sale, or destruction." That's according to an internal document reviewed by CNN, which reports that donors are now trying to reclaim their gifts before the worst happens.

The center, meanwhile, is caught in a power struggle between the Trump administration and preservationists. The president wants the institution renamed in his own honor and insists the decaying building must close for renovations. He has threatened to raze it if he doesn't get his way.

Why are donors demanding their art back?

Donors fear for the safety of their gifts amid the renovation and in the wake of layoffs. They don't believe the leadership — largely appointed by Trump — values the artworks as part of the institution's holdings.

"I want to get that sculpture out of there," one donor told CNN.

Donors, artists and their families have spent months pressing for answers about how the artworks will be safeguarded, where they are, and whether they will be returned, the report says. Their fears weren't calmed when Trump ordered the disassembly and removal of a monumental Joel Shapiro sculpture from the center's grounds. The work had been gifted to the institution but was sold to its former chairman, David Rubenstein. No one has explained the removal.

What does the center say?

"We remain in regular contact with the foundations and entities who have donated art to the center," a Kennedy Center spokesperson told CNN.

A person described as close to the Kennedy Center put it differently, saying the institution's response has been "a little bit disjointed" and that donors are "not given detail in any way."

Officials say the proposal contemplating "destruction" of art "was never envisioned as a sweeping purge." They told CNN that the "cornerstone of the collection — historic international gifts given to the center for its opening — remains intact."

The center did not immediately respond to a request from ARTnews to clarify how much of the collection falls under that "cornerstone" designation, or what circumstances would lead to destroying artworks. Both seem like reasonable questions.

Officials say all artwork will be "fully safeguarded" during the renovation, with some pieces relocated if necessary. Yet sources also told CNN that objects belonging to the archives have been "inadvertently" taken home by staffers. The safeguarding has, so far, a loose feel.

What's at stake in the collection?

The Kennedy Center has long held hundreds of sculptures, tapestries and antiquities, donated or loaned by individual benefactors and other countries. The story of the collection begins with grief: after Kennedy's assassination, world leaders rushed to donate artworks. France gave tapestries by Henri Matisse. Tunisia gave a reproduction of a third-century mosaic for the rooftop terrace.

Who's minding the art now?

Not the man who was. Josef Palermo, formerly the curator in charge of visual art programming, was laid off earlier this year. In an Atlantic essay, he wrote that he had been instructed to begin removing artworks on view.

CNN also notes that the center recently convened, with no announcement, its first visual arts committee, "to curate and expand public installations of performing and visual arts." An unannounced committee guarding a collection facing a destruction clause — donors can be forgiven for reading the room. Until the center defines its "cornerstone" and its criteria for disposal, the reclamation attempts are unlikely to stop.