Amid backlash, museum cancels planned Met Gala exhibit on fashion designer John Galliano

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is canceling its planned exhibit honoring British designer John Galliano — plans that had led to bitter backlash from the Jewish community and beyond because of the designer’s past antisemitic and racist statements.

“John Galliano: Horizons,” the high-profile spring Costume Institute exhibit that was to be launched by the annual Met Gala next May, will be replaced by another exhibit, the museum said Monday.

“Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” Max Hollein, director and CEO of the museum, announced in a statement.

The designer joined in the statement, saying: “After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry for it.”

Galliano, long recognized as one of the fashion world’s biggest talents for his creatively flamboyant designs, was at the pinnacle of that world for years as creative director of Christian Dior. He was fired from the post when a series of racist and antisemitic comments from 2010 and 2011 surfaced and went viral, leading to his conviction in an antisemitism trial in France.

Among the remarks Galliano made to bar patrons, circulated on video, were “I love Hitler.” He also told patrons, who were Jewish, that their mothers and forefathers would have been “gassed.” He also made derogatory comments to an Asian patron.

Dropped by Dior, Galliano spent several years involved in public and private efforts to rehabilitate. He made a comeback in 2014 when he was hired by Paris fashion house Maison Margiela, where he remained for a decade.

He was to become only the third living designer to be honored with a solo show at the Costume Institute.

The spring exhibit is launched each year by the star-studded Met Gala, the most visible event on the fashion calendar, where celebrity guests tour the show's galleries during cocktail hour. The gala is overseen by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and one of the most influential figures in fashion. Wintour has been longtime supporter of Galliano.

In her own statement released by the museum, she called Galliano's decision to step aside a courageous one.

“John’s decision that the exhibition devoted to his work should not take place at this time is very courageous and a measure of the man he is,” Wintour said. “I believe this is the right decision, and both he and the Museum have my full support.”

Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute's longtime curator, also said he agreed with the decision, given “the pain and concern this exhibition has caused.”

The Met, when it announced the show at the end of July, had taken pains to say the exhibit would forthrightly examine Galliano's past mistakes. It also held discussions with Jewish community leaders before announcing the show, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to ward off anticipated backlash.

One of the key critics of the planned show was New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who issued a statement Monday saying she’d met many times with the museum to voice opposition to an exhibit honoring Galliano.

“From the beginning, I have told them that I strongly disagreed with this decision, and at this rising time of antisemitism, it had served as a gut punch to the Jewish community,” said Menin, who noted she was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. “This is the correct decision, as the harm and pain this was causing was simply unacceptable.”

In a further complication for the museum, the gala takes place by tradition on the first Monday in May, which in 2027 falls on Holocaust Remembrance Day. There had been speculation that the museum might change the date for this reason.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said Monday in a post on X that the planned exhibit had been “the wrong move at the wrong moment.”

“With antisemitism at crisis levels, the Met honoring John Galliano at this moment was misguided, and even Galliano ultimately recognized what the Met should have done at the start,” Greenblatt said. He had met with Hollein a few weeks ago, along with a Met board member, urging the museum director to cancel, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Greenblatt had, in earlier comments when the show was announced, praised Galliano's efforts to repair the damage from his remarks, saying the ADL had long since accepted the designer's apology. But he also indicated the timing was difficult for such an honor and urged the museum to consider that reality.

Another recent public critic of the show was David Ingber, a rabbi who is senior director for Jewish life at the Bronfman Center at 92NY, the prominent New York Jewish institution. Ingber praised Galliano's decision to withdraw from the honor in recognition of its cost to other people.

As for the Met, he said there was a big difference between the issue of redemption and the granting of a rare and hugely visible honor. “Redemption doesn't entitle someone to every honor that we have,” he said.

“It wasn't that the Met was merely studying Galliano’s work,” added Ingber, who was not included in the museum's outreach to Jewish community leaders. “It was a solo exhibition that would be launched at the gala, and that would be an act of institutional celebration of his work. Galliano hasn’t been erased … the question was whether the Met should build its most glamorous annual gala celebration around him.”