Met cancels John Galliano exhibition after backlash

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will not proceed with a planned 2027 exhibition devoted to John Galliano, after criticism over the British fashion designer’s past antisemitic and racist remarks intensified in recent weeks.

Galliano said Monday that he had decided the exhibition should not go forward “after much reflection and discussion with the Met and all those involved.”

“I’ve decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time,” he said.

The Met confirmed that its spring 2027 exhibition on Galliano’s four-decade career “will not proceed as planned.” The museum said it will announce details later about a new spring Costume Institute exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala.

The show, titled “John Galliano: Horizons,” had been scheduled to open in May 2027 and would have made Galliano only the third living designer to receive a solo exhibition at the Met’s Costume Institute. His work also would have provided the theme for the next Met Gala, the museum’s high-profile annual fashion fundraiser. The BBC reported that the gala is due to take place on May 3, coinciding with Yom HaShoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.

The plan drew opposition because of comments Galliano made in 2010 and 2011. He was dismissed as creative director of Christian Dior in 2011 and convicted of a hate crime in France after abusing a Jewish curator in a Paris restaurant. A court also heard that he hurled racist insults at her friend, who is of South Asian origin, and in a separate incident declared a love for Hitler, the BBC reported.

“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,” Galliano said Monday.

He added that “meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture,” calling it “a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.” Galliano also cited his “15 years of sobriety and recovery from alcoholism and addiction” and said he did not want “to distract from the remarkable work” of the Costume Institute.

Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor-in-chief, Condé Nast chief content officer, Met trustee and Met Gala chair, supported the decision.

“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, curator in charge of the Met’s Costume Institute, said museums have a duty to confront difficult histories.

“I believe deeply in the responsibility of museums to examine difficult histories with rigor, candor, and care,” Bolton said. “I also recognize the pain and concern this exhibition has caused.”

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, one of the most senior Jewish officials in city government, said she was pleased the Met had agreed “to not honour John 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,” Menin said. “This is the correct decision, as the harm and pain this was causing was simply unacceptable.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said that with antisemitism at “crisis levels,” honoring Galliano would be “misguided.” He added, “Even Galliano ultimately recognised what the Met should have done from the start. This was the wrong move at the wrong moment. Timing matters.”

The New York Times reported that donors had threatened to withdraw gifts to the museum if the exhibition moved ahead, according to CBS News.

Galliano was creative director at Dior for 15 years and later led Maison Margiela for a decade until 2024. He is known for theatrical designs and is regarded by some as one of fashion’s most influential designers.