{"id":615778,"date":"2026-09-29T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615778\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:52:11","slug":"kehinde-wiley-requests-to-buy-back-painting-removed-by-state-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615778\/","title":{"rendered":"Kehinde Wiley Requests to Buy Back Painting Removed by State Department"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <a class=\"gh-article-tag\" href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/tag\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gh-article-excerpt is-body\">Trump officials removed the work from an embassy in the Dominican Republic in August, labeling it &#8220;woke.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                            <a href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/author\/anna-lee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-profile-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790722331_887_anna-lee.jpg\" alt=\"Anna Lee\"\/><br \/>\n                            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/author\/anna-lee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anna Lee<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                        September 29, 2026<br \/>\n                            \u2014 2 min read\n                    <\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2151199740.jpg\" alt=\"Kehinde Wiley Requests to Buy Back Painting Removed by State Department\"\/><br \/>\n            Kehinde Wiley on May 2, 2024, in New York City (photo Mike Coppola\/Tiffany &amp; Co. via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Kehinde Wiley has asked to buy back his painting &#8220;Young Artists After Siamesas 1960\u201d (2015) after the State Department removed it from the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic last month, according to a letter the artist sent to President Donald Trump on September 24. <\/p>\n<p>Citing the artist&#8217;s &#8220;violent and racist words and depictions,&#8221; the US State Department<a href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/us-state-department-takes-down-woke-kehinde-wiley-painting\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> took down the painting<\/a> from its Santo Domingo embassy in August at the behest of Trump-backed officials Leah Campos, US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, and Erin Scavino, the head of the State Department&#8217;s Art in Embassies program. In a statement shared with Hyperallergic in August, a spokesperson said that elected officials and the State Department were in discussions with lawyers to &#8220;ascertain whether the art can be sold.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If your administration has determined that it no longer wishes to display the work, I would like to ask for the opportunity to purchase it back,&#8221; Wiley writes in his letter, which Sean Kelly Gallery <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Dd2WD3QEXTS\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1&amp;ref=hyperallergic.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shared on social media<\/a> earlier this week. &#8220;I created this painting for a particular place and with a particular purpose. I spent two years studying the work of Dominican artists and worked with young artists in Santo Domingo in making it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Neither Wiley nor Sean Kelly Gallery, which has represented the artist since 2010, has responded yet to Hyperallergic&#8217;s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    Create a free account, or sign in to continue reading.<\/p>\n<p>Registered readers of Hyperallergic get access to a limited number of free articles every month, and the Hyperallergic Daily newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>      <a class=\"gh-btn\" data-portal=\"signup\" style=\"color:#00AEEE\">Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Already have an account? <a data-portal=\"signin\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Trump officials removed the work from an embassy in the Dominican Republic in August, labeling it &#8220;woke.&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-615778","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-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615778","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=615778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}