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Sandra Hegedüs, a longtime patron of the Palais de Tokyo, said she would no longer provide financial support to Paris’s foremost contemporary art museum after it mounted an exhibition dealing with the history of Palestine.
On Sunday, Hegedüs said on Instagram that she was leaving the Amis du Palais de Tokyo, a group of benefactors where she formerly served as vice president. In an extended message to the museum’s leadership, she said that her values were no longer aligned with the Palais de Tokyo’s.
“The reason is simple: things have changed and I don’t want to be associated with the new, very political orientation of the Palais,” she wrote. “The programming seems from now on to be dictated by the defense of ‘Causes,’” which she defined as “wokism, anti-capitalism, pro-Palestine, etc.”
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She singled out an “exhibition about Palestine” at the museum that she said “proposes, without perspective, some biased views and lies about the history of this conflict.” Hegedüs wrote that the show contained “racist, violent, and antisemitic remarks.”
While Hegedüs did not explicitly state which exhibition this was, she seemed to be referring to “Past Disquiet,” a current show at the Palais de Tokyo focused on the notion of “museums in exile” as seen in touring shows conceived by artists in the Global South. The show’s description refers to how these shows helped raise artists’ support for “the struggle for liberation of the Palestinian and Nicaraguan people respectively, and the struggle against the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and the apartheid regime in South Africa.”
“The International Art Exhibition for Palestine,” a 1978 show held in Beirut, is a focal point in “Past Disquiet,” which pays homage to its legacy in the form of archival documentation.
In a statement, Philippe Dian, president of the Palais de Tokyo’s Amis group, issued a press statement in which he said that “the mission of the Amis is to support the Palais, not to pass judgment on its programming. The choice to join the Amis and whether or not to continue to participate in the organization’s activities is an individual one.”
Moreover, Guillaume Désanges, the museum’s director, said that the museum must “shed light upon, to question and to put into perspective – particularly historical perspective – the current events that are shaping society. This is far from an easy task, all the more so today. The more difficult this task is, however, the more necessary becomes.”
The museum’s press release said the institution “reaffirms its solidarity with all the populations who have fallen victim to this tragic situation, condemns acts of terrorism and antisemitism, and calls for a lasting peace, a ceasefire in Gaza, and the liberation of all hostages.”
Hegedüs said she had supported the Palais de Tokyo for 15 years. The Brazilian-born, France-based collector’s foundation, SAM Art Projects, has in the past facilitated two initiatives in tandem with the museum—a prize for a European gallery that invites winning spaces to mount shows outside the West and a Paris residency focused on artists from the Global South.
On X, Hegedüs says in her bio that she is a “proud Zionist.” She has been vocal about her support of Israel and has made many posts on her Instagram to that effect. One recent Instagram post mocked the pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia University, parodying the situation by joking that students at the school had set up a concentration camp for Jews “just to make them feel safe.”
Her resignation from the Amis du Palais de Tokyo has gone viral, accruing more than 13,000 likes on Instagram since it was first posted this weekend.
She told the French arts publication Transfuge that her decision to leave the group was not merely meant to protest in support of Israel. “This goes well beyond my personal case, and even the Israel-Hamas conflict,” she said. “I wish to point out a general drift within the cultural environment, that of wokism, of Islamoleftism.”
Update, 5/8/24, 1:45 p.m.: This article has been updated to include a statement from the Palais de Tokyo.
