{"id":586787,"date":"2026-09-01T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:22:11","slug":"the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-is-cancelling-its-john-galliano-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586787\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan Museum of Art is cancelling its John Galliano retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will no longer proceed with \u201cJohn Galliano: Horizons\u201d<\/a>, the proposed theme for the 2027 costume exhibition and celebrity-packed Met Gala. The decision was always going to be a controversial one; the designer was found guilty of a hate crime after making anti-Asian and antisemitic remarks over a decade ago. But backlash from the public, particularly among Jewish leaders, has led to a first-of-its-kind withdrawal from Galliano.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,\u201d Max Hollein, director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, said in an official statement this morning.<\/p>\n

Just last month, The Met announced its annual May exhibition would centre the life and work of Galliano. The designer\u2019s talent is revered in the fashion industry. After emerging as a wunderkind in the late \u201980s after graduating from Central Saint Martins, Galliano revived the house of Dior<\/a> in the late \u201990s and early 2000s, capturing the attention of the fashion world with his elaborate, fantastical vision along the way. But after videos of his antisemitic remarks surfaced in 2011, Galliano not only lost his post at Dior but was convicted of a hate crime in a Paris court, after which he apologised for his actions. The designer took three years away from the industry, during which he met with Jewish leaders and underwent rehabilitation for alcohol and substance addiction.<\/p>\n

\"parisChris Moore\/Catwalking\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Chistian Dior Spring 2007 couture<\/p>\n

In 2014, he was appointed creative director at Maison Margiela<\/a>, where he remained for almost a decade. There, his provocative work attracted celebrity devotion and critical renown once more. He left the house in 2024 and remained dormant until a partnership with Zara was announced earlier this year. With their initial decision, the Met gave him what is perhaps fashion\u2019s highest honour; Galliano would have been only the third living designer to warrant this particular retrospective. Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Met\u2019s Costume Institute, his team, and Galliano himself had a series of meetings with rabbis and Jewish leaders to determine their approach. Initial backlash met the announcement, but pushback has only continued to mount in recent weeks, particularly among Jewish leaders.<\/p>\n

The evening\u2019s gala is notably pegged to the first Monday in May, but in 2027, that will fall on Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. The team behind the exhibition and gala was already considering pushing the event back a week. Additionally, a series of high-profile donors have contacted Met executives and threatened to rescind donations if the exhibition comes to fruition, according to The New York Times<\/a>. The outlet has also reported on rumours of another antisemitic outburst from Galliano in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"newGetty Images<\/p>\n

John Galliano and Kim Kardashian attend the 2024 Met Gala in Margiela<\/p>\n

The official press release includes a lengthy statement from Galliano, thanking the Met for the honour, and acknowledging the distress his actions have caused and would continue to inflict if the exhibition were to proceed. \u201cAfter 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,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI 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. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one\u2019s conduct over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

This decision is unprecedented; there has never been such a late-stage switch-up for the Met. Per the Costume Institute, information on a new spring exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will no longer proceed with \u201cJohn Galliano: Horizons\u201d, the proposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,288957,5218,288956,501,2117,156,207292,2116,111,139,69,288955,251090],"class_list":["post-586787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-collection-met-gala","tag-content-type-default","tag-contentid-877c31ac-c2e1-4a60-aa1b-98135b52531c","tag-design","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-true","tag-locale-gb","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shorttitle-the-met-has-cancelled-its-john-galliano-exhibition","tag-sponsored-false"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}