Met Cancels John Galliano Retrospective After Antisemitism Backlash

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES | The Metropolitan Museum of Art and fashion designer John Galliano have cancelled a planned 2027 retrospective following an escalating backlash over his past antisemitic conduct and the scheduling of the Met Gala on Yom HaShoah.

The exhibition, John Galliano: Horizons, would have made Galliano only the third living designer to receive a solo Costume Institute retrospective at the Met.

The museum announced the exhibition on July 31, describing Galliano as one of the most influential designers of the past four decades. The show was scheduled to run from May 9, 2027, until Jan. 9, 2028.

The associated Met Gala was expected to take place on May 3, the first Monday in May. Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, begins that evening.

Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation President and Director General Jack Simony issued a blistering response to the planned honour.

“A second chance for John Galliano is one thing. Making him only the third living designer ever granted a solo retrospective at the Met Gala is not forgiveness. It is canonization,” Simony said.

“Scheduling its gala for Yom HaShoah is not merely appalling. It is obscene.

“Then again, perhaps the timing is perfect. Anna Wintour has always known what is in vogue. This year, it is antisemitism.”

Galliano and the museum announced on Aug. 31 that the exhibition would no longer proceed. The Met said it would later announce a replacement spring 2027 Costume Institute exhibition and new details concerning the Met Gala.

“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,” Galliano said in a joint statement reported by Reuters.

“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.”

Galliano said meaningful atonement could not be achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. He described it as a continuing responsibility demonstrated through listening, learning and personal conduct.

He also acknowledged that an exhibition honouring his work would be painful for some people and said he did not want the controversy to damage the museum or distract from the Costume Institute.

Galliano was dismissed as Christian Dior’s creative director in 2011 after a video emerged showing him making antisemitic remarks at a Paris bar. In the recording, Galliano declared his admiration for Adolf Hitler and told other patrons that their ancestors would have been murdered in gas chambers.

A French court later found him guilty of making public insults based on race, religion, ethnicity or origin and imposed suspended fines totalling 6,000 euros.

Galliano apologized and attributed his conduct to addiction. He subsequently entered treatment and returned to the fashion industry in 2014 as artistic director of Maison Margiela, where he remained until 2024.

The Met initially said its exhibition would directly address Galliano’s antisemitic, racist and anti-Asian conduct alongside his work. It argued that the retrospective would examine how artistic achievement, ethical accountability and institutional recognition intersect.

Critics rejected the distinction between examining Galliano’s work and bestowing one of the fashion world’s most prestigious honours upon him.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the first Jewish speaker of the council, called the planned exhibition a serious mistake.

Menin argued that cultural institutions receiving public funding have a responsibility to demonstrate that hatred and bigotry carry consequences.

After the cancellation, she said the issue was personal to her and that she felt an obligation to speak out on behalf of the Jewish community.

The Anti-Defamation League also welcomed the reversal.

“With antisemitism at crisis levels, the Met honoring John Galliano at this moment was misguided, and even Galliano ultimately recognized what the Met should have done from the start,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “This was the wrong move at the wrong moment. Timing matters.”

Anna Wintour, Vogue’s global editorial director and a Met trustee, supported the cancellation while praising Galliano’s decision as “very courageous.”

The retrospective would have followed solo Costume Institute exhibitions devoted to Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo in 2017.

The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation works to apply the lessons of the Holocaust to combating antisemitism, hatred and extremism.

Headquartered in New York City, the foundation operates educational and leadership initiatives including Decode Hate, the American Service Academies Program and the RISE Leadership Program.

It also maintains the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim, Poland. The centre includes the city’s last remaining synagogue, a museum and educational centre, and preserved Jewish properties documenting the community that existed there before the Holocaust.

The cancellation ended the immediate plan to elevate Galliano at the 2027 Met Gala. However, the controversy left unresolved questions about how major cultural institutions distinguish between forgiveness, historical examination and institutional celebration.

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