Overview
- Ambassador Leah Campos posted a video on August 11 showing the Wiley painting covered with a U.S.-flag tarp and then removed from the main hall of the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo.
- The work, Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, was commissioned by the State Department in 2013 and installed at the embassy in 2015 after collaboration with local Dominican art students.
- Art in Embassies director Erin Scavino publicly lobbied for the removal and called the painting “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying,” language echoed by a State Department spokeswoman who cited Wiley’s past remarks and pending sexual‑assault allegations.
- State Department officials say they are working with legal counsel to determine whether the federal government can lawfully sell a commissioned artwork paid for with taxpayer funds, and the department said deaccessioning would be a goal if legally possible.
- Former Art in Embassies officials and curators say the move breaks long‑standing diplomatic practice of using commissioned art to build cultural ties and warn the action could narrow what the U.S. presents abroad and strain relations with host‑country artists.