The Holy Virgin Mary and the Brooklyn Museum
A mayor, a masterpiece, and a fight over public funding
Image: Unsplash
When Chris Ofili's 'The Holy Virgin Mary', incorporating elephant dung, appeared in the 1999 'Sensation' show, Mayor Rudy Giuliani moved to cut the Brooklyn Museum's funding and evict it. A federal court sided with the museum.
Giuliani condemned the painting as 'sick' and 'anti-Catholic' and threatened to withhold the city's subsidy and terminate the museum's lease. The museum sued, and a federal judge ruled the city's retaliation an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
The standoff became a defining American test of whether public officials can punish institutions for the art they show. Ofili — who intended the dung, drawn from his Nigerian heritage, as a mark of reverence rather than insult — went on to win the Turner Prize.