In a Rare Political Gesture, the Met Speaks Out Against Trump’s Threats to Iranian Cultural Sites, Calling Such Targeting ‘Abhorrent’

This weekend, President Trump
shocked the world when he announced on
Twitter his plan to
attack cultural sites in Iran should the country retaliate for the
death of military commander Qasem Soleimani. Since then,
cultural
authorities the world over have spoken out against the president’s controversial threat,
with some—including Britain’s foreign secretary—pointing out that it
would violate international conventions, amounting to a war
crime.  

Now, the Metropolitan Museum of
Art is joining the chorus of dissent. In a rare wade into politics,
the museum’s director, Max Hollein, and its CEO, Daniel H. Weiss,
released a joint statement today “in response to recent comments
about Iran.” (Notably, they avoided mentioning Trump directly.) See
the full statement below. 

The targeting of sites of global
cultural heritage is abhorrent to the collective values of our
society. Our world knows precisely what is gained from protecting
cultural sites, and, tragically, what is lost when destruction and
chaos prevail. At this challenging time, we must remind ourselves
of the global importance of protecting cultural sites—the objects
and places by which individuals, communities, and nations connect
to their history and heritage. Today’s leaders and citizens have
many profound responsibilities—protecting lives, and also
protecting the precious legacy of generations before us, as it is
from these shared places of cultural heritage that we gain the
wisdom to secure safe and better futures.

Such an overtly political
gesture is rare for any museum, let alone one as prominent at the
Met. But Trump’s increasingly incendiary actions toward Iran have
spurred many in the arts to speak out, including
the Met’s former director
and current head of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Thomas
Campbell, and Tristram Hunt, the former politician and current
director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Professional museum
organizations were quick to follow. The Association of Art Museum
Directors (AAMD), which represents 225 art museums in North
America, also weighed in, saying in a statement that the
organization “deplores the tactic of targeting or demolishing
cultural sites as part of any war or armed conflict. In this case,
the region is home to unique and irreplaceable artifacts and
archaeological sites, and AAMD strongly urges international
engagement to protect and preserve our shared cultural
heritage.”

The American Alliance of Museums—another leading museum trade
organization that also tends to conspicuously avoid wading into
politics—also released a statement “condemn[ing] the targeting of
cultural sites for destruction.” The group continued: “We expect
the United States Government to comply with international law and
urge the US Government to reaffirm its commitment to its
longstanding practice of not targeting cultural sites during peace
or wartime.”

Iran is home to 22 cultural
sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including the ruins of the
ancient city of Persepolis and the Chogha Zanbil
complex.

The post In a Rare Political Gesture, the Met Speaks Out
Against Trump’s Threats to Iranian Cultural Sites, Calling Such
Targeting ‘Abhorrent’ appeared first on artnet News.