The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Monday that the “John Galliano: Horizons” exhibit and theme are cancelled, the Associated Press reports.
“Following thoughtful discussions with John Galliano, we have together decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” Max Hollein, director and CEO of the museum, announced in a statement.
Galliano was set to be honored with an exhibit and the 2027 Met Gala theme honoring him.
However, Galliano was widely criticized for anti-Semitic and racist comments, such as expressing his love for Hitler in a Paris restaurant. A Paris court found him guilty of two hate crime charges. He was fined approximately $8,500 USD.
“All of us are a bit racist.”
Galliano apologized in Kevin Macdonald’s 2024 documentary “High & Low.”
“It was a disgusting thing, a foul thing that I did. It was just horrific,” he said. He added: “I can say I’m not racist, but every day you actually learn that all of us are a bit [racist]. But we just need to unlearn it and like immigrants. I am one. I was one.”
Galliano issued a new apology after the museum announced the cancellation.
“After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time. 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 for it.”
Anna Wintour addressed Galliano’s troubling past two weeks ago.
Wintour defended the 2027 Costume Institute exhibit celebrating the British fashion designer. She said the exhibit would not ignore Galliano’s dark past.
“There is no one more deserving of an exhibition of this scale than John Galliano” and that the exhibition “won’t shy away from any of the darkness in John’s past,” she told Vogue.
Galliano, 65, was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. He was named British Designer of the Year four times.
In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Galliano was named the fifth most influential person in British culture.