Metropolitan Museum of Art executives have called an emergency meeting for Sunday to address mounting backlash over their plan to honor John Galliano at the 2027 Met Gala.
The hastily scheduled session follows days of intensifying criticism, most notably from New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who delivered a blistering letter to gala organizer Anna Wintour demanding the institution reverse course. Menin, who is Jewish and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, became the highest-ranking official to publicly condemn the retrospective when she spoke out Saturday.
“In a time of rampant anti-Semitism in our city, I believe honoring John Galliano is a serious mistake,” Menin told The Post. “I urge the Met to reconsider this decision as choosing to bestow the highest honor the museum has to someone who has a history of anti-Semitic and anti-Asian slurs only serves to fan the flames of hate and sends the message of a normalization of this type of conduct.”
Menin, 47, also raised fresh concerns about a separate 2019 incident that she said was never fully investigated. “I am also deeply troubled by reports that there is a more recent 2019 incident that was never investigated,” she continued. “As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the first Jewish speaker of the New York City Council, I strongly urge the Met to reconsider honoring Galliano.”
The “John Galliano: Horizons” exhibit is slated to open at the annual Met Gala fundraiser in May 2027 and remain on view for nine months. The one-time Christian Dior creative director would become only the third living person to receive a solo retrospective at the Costume Institute, following Yves Saint Laurent in 1983 and Rei Kawakubo in 2017.
Antisemitism activists have joined Menin in assailing the museum’s judgment. Brooke Goldstein, founder of End Jew Hatred, did not mince words about Wintour’s role in the selection. “Anna Wintour must be awfully comfortable embracing a Nazi-loving antisemite to put the prestige of the Met behind his rehabilitation,” Goldstein told The Post.
Eitan Guttenmacher, executive director of Havura, a Jewish artists group, pointed to what he sees as a double standard in the fashion industry’s willingness to forgive. “The Met took the risk because they thought they could get away with it,” Guttenmacher added. “I don’t think they would book a figure who was convicted of other forms of discrimination; it’s in vogue to overlook antisemitism in this industry.”
The museum has attempted to get ahead of the controversy by pledging the exhibit will directly confront Galliano’s past conduct. CEO Max Hollein, in a statement, said: “The Met has no tolerance for antisemitism, racism or prejudice of any kind. We are in close consultation with Jewish leaders and other stakeholders, and we take the concerns we’ve heard very seriously.”
Wintour, who serves as a Met trustee and Vogue’s global editorial director, had previously sought to neutralize opposition by meeting with influential rabbis and Jewish leaders in New York City. Those leaders ultimately gave their blessing and endorsed the idea that Galliano deserves a second chance, according to reports.
The timing of the gala has drawn additional scrutiny. The event typically falls on the first Monday in May, which next year lands on May 3 — Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day.
Galliano’s fall from grace began in 2011 when he was convicted of a hate crime in France for drunkenly berating patrons at a Paris cafe with antisemitic insults, including the declaration “I love Hitler.” The incident cost him his position as creative director at Dior. He later apologized, attributing his behavior to alcoholism and drug addiction, and sought rehabilitation before returning to fashion in 2014 as creative designer at Maison Margiela.
The 2019 allegations resurfaced when fashion publicist Lauren London told the Times that Galliano repeatedly screamed “Merry Christmas” at her while she spoke to her daughter over the phone in Hebrew. A spokesperson for Galliano denied those claims to the Times.
Menin’s letter was addressed to Wintour, Hollein, and Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute at the Met. The Met did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The emergency meeting Sunday will test whether the museum’s leadership can withstand the pressure or will recalibrate one of its most high-profile programming decisions in years.