{"id":933807,"date":"2026-10-19T13:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933807\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:54:22","slug":"donors-fear-the-worst-for-kennedy-centers-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933807\/","title":{"rendered":"Donors fear the worst for Kennedy Center\u2019s art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n At the height of legal and political tumult at the Kennedy Center<\/a> last summer, board members discussed moving the iconic eight-foot, 3,000-pound bronze bust of President John F. Kennedy from the Grand Foyer while the main building closed for renovations.\n <\/p>\n

\n They reasoned the move to a newer building would not only secure the artwork but ensure the campus remained a living memorial to the 35th president, according to sources familiar with the board discussions.\n <\/p>\n

\n What they didn\u2019t know \u2013 but would soon find out \u2013 was that the bust is bolted into the foundation of the building, multiple feet underground, and moving it wouldn\u2019t be logistically feasible. So, it will remain in place, sources say, and be shielded during construction.\n <\/p>\n

\n The fate of the bust, which was commissioned and gifted by the Kennedy family, underscores the haphazard efforts in recent months to catalog and protect the treasures in the Kennedy Center. The building houses hundreds of irreplaceable pieces of art and antiquities \u2013 including tapestries, sculptures and chandeliers \u2013 that have been donated or loaned by other countries and benefactors.\n <\/p>\n

\n Worried donors, artists and their family members have been calling and emailing the Kennedy Center for months, asking about what\u2019s being done to protect the artwork, whether their pieces will be temporarily moved, and if they\u2019ll one day be returned, according to half a dozen people who spoke to CNN on the condition they remain anonymous.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some donors are suggesting arrangements for their pieces to be moved to museums and other places \u2013 away from the Kennedy Center. And some told CNN they feared speaking out publicly while the artwork they care about is still inside the center.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI want to get that sculpture out of there,\u201d said one person who donated a piece to the center.\n <\/p>\n

\n Apprehension over the collection began to fester late last year when officials devised a plan for permanently removing artwork that envisioned possible \u201cdisposal\u201d through various means, including \u201creturn to country of origin, transfer or exchange with another institution, public sale, or destruction,\u201d according to internal documents reviewed by CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Then, President Donald Trump, who is chairman of the Kennedy Center board, repeatedly stoked fears about the artwork with threats of demolishing the performing arts center, the removal last month of a major outdoor sculpture from the center\u2019s grounds and the addition of a gold-leaf portrait of himself.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"Gold-leaf<\/p>\n

\n Kennedy Center officials now say the proposal CNN reviewed was never envisioned as a sweeping purge of artwork. They insist the \u201ccornerstone of the collection \u2013 historic international gifts given to the Center for its opening \u2013 remains intact\u201d and that the institution is exploring adding further works.\n <\/p>\n

\n Many of the pieces were given as gestures of goodwill and in commemoration of John F. Kennedy. On the day of his assassination, the American sculptor Robert Berks began work on what would become the bust that was installed on the day the institution opened in 1971.\n <\/p>\n

\n Officials also tell CNN that all artwork will be \u201cfully safeguarded\u201d during the renovation. Some pieces will be temporarily relocated, they said, if necessary to ensure they\u2019re protected and that safety is maintained during construction. And some pieces won\u2019t be moved.\n <\/p>\n

\n For instance, an iconic starburst Lobmeyr crystal chandelier, a gift from Austria that\u2019s 60 feet wide and illuminated by more than 3,200 bulbs, is expected to stay during the renovation. A plan for the bronze bust of Julius Rudel outside the Opera House, the first artistic and music director of the center, is being discussed.\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe remain in regular contact with the foundations and entities who have donated art to the Center,\u201d a Kennedy Center spokesperson told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s renovation plans \u2013 and his efforts to put his name on the facade \u2013 are still the subjects of a court fight. Officials say the REACH, a smaller venue on the Kennedy Center complex, will still serve as a temporary living memorial to JFK.\n <\/p>\n

\n With the Kennedy Center\u2019s doors temporarily closed and officials readying for a two-year renovation, art donors and enthusiasts are scrambling to understand what\u2019s happening and fearing the worst \u2013 from artwork becoming collateral damage during construction to being accidentally thrown away.\n <\/p>\n

\n Josef Palermo, a former curator at the institution, described the Africa Lounge being cleared out in one day. The room housed dozens of works donated by African nations, including 12-foot double doors carved from a 700-year-old tree in Nigeria.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWalking into it when it was hollowed out and darkened and my heart really sank,\u201d Palermo told CNN in an interview. \u201cThe room was completely stripped bare.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The room is now being used for storage.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Kennedy Center says the African room art remains on site and that preservation efforts are underway.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere is a major concern that a lot of this artwork is being pushed around the center,\u201d one person close the Kennedy Center who works with several donors said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The institute has seemed open to finding a way to accommodate suggestions for artwork to be displayed elsewhere, according to several people who spoke to CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n But these conversations are happening in an ad hoc manner, they said, often driven by donors and families of the artists, and not being initiated by the institution.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is a little bit disjointed response,\u201d the person close the Kennedy Center said. \u201cResponses on this have been very inadequate or not clear, or you know \u2018everything is safe and sound, rest assured\u2019 kind of thing,\u201d the person said \u2013 but donors are \u201cnot given any detail in any way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The system for cataloguing art inside the Kennedy Center had been disorganized, sources say. Adding to the disarray this year, the center\u2019s finances tanked, scores of staff were laid off and changes were made to the interior decor.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the same time, archival materials have been used as decorations in different offices throughout the building.\n <\/p>\n

\n When the center underwent layoffs this spring, some sources said that staff inadvertently took home mementos, such as such as signed Kennedy Center Honors posters that are technically part of its archives.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some gifts and valuable assets, including the spare crystals for the chandelier from Austria, are housed in a fire- and flood-proof storage facility at the center.\n <\/p>\n

\n The arts institution also rents a storage facility in Virginia and just renewed the ten-year lease. That\u2019s where some of the remaining marble, donated by Italy, that makes up the white facade of the building is kept.\n <\/p>\n

\n And earlier this year, the Kennedy Center hired a lead archivist, Olivia Herschel, to oversee and manage its catalogue of artwork.\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, seven months later, the center said in a statement to CNN that \u201cfor the first time in our institution\u2019s history, the collection has been comprehensively cataloged, marking a significant step in the preservation efforts of new leadership.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Herschel also has become an unofficial liaison with donors and artists seeking answers. Sources who spoke to CNN say they\u2019ve been in touch regularly and were given assurances they will be told of any developments with the artwork.\n <\/p>\n

\n While sources describe her as engaged and respectful, they also question how much power she has to deliver on her assurances given the dynamics under the Trump administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n The center declined to make Herschel available for an interview.\n <\/p>\n

\n The idea of a national cultural center that showcased the best of American music, art and drama started to take shape after World War II under President Dwight Eisenhower, who signed a law to create a national performing arts space on the banks of the Potomac River in 1958. The space was envisioned as an \u201cartistic Mecca \u2026 that would be open to visitors from every land.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy \u2013 a devoted patron of the arts \u2013 carried Eisenhower\u2019s vision forward. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy helped lead efforts to raise money for the center and in 1962, during a televised fundraiser, the president told the nation why he believed the center would be invaluable.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cToday, as always, art knows no national boundaries,\u201d he said. \u201cThe poet, the artist, the musician, continues the quiet work of centuries, building bridges of experience between peoples.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cArt is political in the most profound sense,\u201d Kennedy added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Less than a year later, he was assassinated.\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n At the time, Ralph Becker, the general counsel for the center, was tasked with helping to coordinate donations from foreign dignitaries. He later wrote<\/a> that he began having discussions about renaming the institution in Kennedy\u2019s honor within hours of the president\u2019s death.\n <\/p>\n

\n World leaders began flooding Becker with requests to donate artwork to the center after Kennedy\u2019s assassination. Italy supplied the marble to form the facade of the building from the famed Carrara mountains \u2013 the same mountains that produced the marble for Michaelangelo\u2019s David.\n <\/p>\n

\n Canada provided the curtains for the Eisenhower theater; France donated tapestries by Henri Matisse, and India created 20 specially designed planters for the Grand Foyer. Norway supplied 11 chandeliers for the concert hall, and Tunisia donated a reproduction of a 3rd century mosaic for the rooftop terrace.\n <\/p>\n

\n With the future of the Kennedy Center building in limbo, sources who spoke to CNN wondered about the long-term plans for the artwork and whether Trump will replace it with pieces more to his liking.\n <\/p>\n

\n Palermo, now a whistleblower, has said that he was told last year to remove all the outdoor art, including the abstract \u201cBlue\u201d sculpture, because Trump wanted \u201call new art for the reopening.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The abrupt removal of that <\/a>work in September seemed to confirm concerns, even as the Kennedy Center said deinstallation after seven years was \u201ccommon practice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Kennedy Center officials tell CNN that there are no other planned or imminent changes to the artwork currently on display.\n <\/p>\n

\n But this month, with no public announcement, the Kennedy Center convened its first \u201cvisual arts committee\u201d \u2013 a panel of staff and board members who will aim to curate and expand public installations of performing and visual arts.\n <\/p>\n

\n The committee will manage the addition of visual art through rotating displays that will be open to the public \u2014 like the recent addition of gold-leaf portraits on temporary loan to the REACH featuring Trump and Elon Musk.\n <\/p>\n

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