Ai Weiwei threatens to pull MoMA artwork over chairman's Jeffrey Epstein connections

Jamie Johnson
·4 min read
Artist Ai Weiwei accepts an award onstage at the WSJ Magazine 2016 Innovator Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Rabbani and Solimene Photography/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards) Image title: 620811972 - Rabbani and Solimene/Getty
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Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist and dissident, has threatened to pull his work from New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) if its chairman does not stand down over his historic financial links to Jeffrey Epstein.

Leon Black’s private equity firm Apollo Global Management paid the billionaire paedophile $158 million for tax and estate advisory services between 2012 and 2017, despite Epstein’s previous conviction for soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl.

According to the New York Times, Mr Black accounted for 85 per cent of the fees raked in by Epstein at his Southern Trust Company in the years following his 2008 conviction.

FILE: Leon Black, chairman and chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management LLC, at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. After months of ugly headlines about his business dealings with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Black has stepped down as Apollo Global Management chief executive officer. Insiders, speaking on the condition they not be named, described the drama late Monday after the board revealed that Black had paid a startling $158 million for Epstein’s advice. Still, the iconic dealmaker will remain chairman, while his preferred partner replaces him as chief executive officer. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg - Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Last month, Mr Black said he would stand down as chief executive of the company he founded, but more than 150 artists have also called for him to be removed from the MoMA.

“I would feel ashamed to be associated with the MoMA if it takes a firm position in keeping someone who has been confirmed to have hurt basic values, or has worked against truth and fairness,” Ai said in an interview with the New York Times.

“If so, I hope it won’t include any of my works in its collection.”

In a joint statement, the artists asking for Mr Black’s dismissal said: “Beyond his removal, we must think seriously about a collective exit from art’s imbrication in toxic philanthropy and structures of oppression so that we don’t have to have the same conversations over and over, one board member at a time.”

251749267 / 9a63ed2f-c9a9-3737-bc60-872494eaec0e Image headline: WSJ. Magazine 2016 Innovator Awards - Arrivals Original description: NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 02: Honoree and Artist Ai Weiwei attends the WSJ Magazine 2016 Innovator Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards) Image title: 620654262

At Dartmouth College, students are also complaining that his name is on their Visual Arts Centre. He donated $48 million to the institution in 2012.

A spokesperson for Mr Black declined to comment when asked by the New York Times, but he has previously said he is appalled by Mr Epstein and deeply regrets his involvement with him.

Mr Black has not been accused of any financial wrongdoing and has pledged to donate more than $200 million to women’s charities.

But it may not be easy to get the billionaire financier to stand down from his role at the MoMA.

Boasting a personal art collection worth $1 billion, Mr Black lent the museum Edvard Munch’s 1895 version of “The Scream” in 2012, for which he’d paid nearly $120 million, the highest price at auction at the time.

He donated $40 million in 2018 and had a two-floor film centre named in his and his wife’s honour.

FILE - This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. A Justice Department report has found former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta exercised “poor judgment” in handling an investigation into wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was a top federal prosecutor in Florida. The report was obtained by The Associated Press and is a culmination of an investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility over Acosta’s handling of a secret plea deal with Epstein, who had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File) - AP

Ai Weiwei also has a long history with New York, dating back to the early 1980s when he attended the Parsons School of Design.

The MoMA website lists six online exhibitions available to browse, as well as 12 of his artworks.

His series ‘study of perspective,’ created between 1995 and 2003, shows raised middle fingers thrust towards important landmarks, including the White House, Tiananmen Square and the Mona Lisa.

In 2017, he captured the public’s attention by installing giant metal structures designed to resemble the border wall with Mexico, to draw attention to then-President Trump’s hostile immigration policies.

In Central Park, he erected a golden cage.

"The project is made for the people of the city, so of course President Trump is welcome to enjoy this sculpture," said Ai. "I made the sculpture gold to please him."