Donors and artists associated with Washington’s Kennedy Center are raising concerns about the safety and future of its valuable art collection as the institution prepares for a two-year renovation under President Donald Trump’s leadership.
The concerns have intensified amid uncertainty over the building’s future, staff layoffs, changes to its interior and questions about how donated artworks will be protected during construction.
One of the works at the centre of discussions is an eight-foot bronze bust of former US President John F. Kennedy, weighing about 3,000 pounds. Sources familiar with board discussions told CNN that members considered relocating the sculpture from the Grand Foyer while the main building undergoes renovation.
The proposed move was intended to protect the artwork and ensure the Kennedy Center complex continued to serve as a living memorial to the 35th president.
However, officials later discovered that the bust was bolted into the building’s foundation several feet underground, making its removal impractical. The sculpture is therefore expected to remain in place and be shielded during construction.
Commissioned and donated by the Kennedy family, the bust’s uncertain fate has highlighted wider concerns about how the institution has been handling its collection, which includes hundreds of sculptures, tapestries, chandeliers and other valuable objects donated or loaned by foreign governments and private benefactors.
Several donors, artists and relatives of artists have contacted the centre in recent months seeking information about the protection of their contributions, according to six people who spoke to CNN anonymously.
Some have proposed transferring their works to museums or other institutions until the renovation is completed. Others said they were reluctant to speak publicly because their artwork remains inside the Kennedy Center.
“I want to get that sculpture out of there,” one donor told CNN.
Concerns about the collection reportedly grew late last year after officials developed a proposal for permanently removing certain artworks. Internal documents reviewed by CNN outlined possible methods of “disposal,” including “return to country of origin, transfer or exchange with another institution, public sale, or destruction.”
Kennedy Center officials have since said the proposal was never intended to facilitate a broad removal of the institution’s artwork. They maintain that the collection’s historic international gifts remain intact and that plans are being considered to add more works.
Trump, who chairs the Kennedy Center board, has further fuelled concerns through his threats to demolish the performing arts institution, the removal of a major outdoor sculpture last month and the installation of a gold-leaf portrait of himself.
Despite the controversy, centre officials say all artwork will be “fully safeguarded” during the renovation. Some pieces may be temporarily relocated where necessary, while others will remain in their current positions.
An Austrian gift, an iconic Lobmeyr crystal chandelier measuring 60 feet across and illuminated by more than 3,200 bulbs, is expected to stay in place throughout the construction. Officials are also discussing what to do with a bronze bust of Julius Rudel, the centre’s first artistic and music director, located outside the Opera House.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson told CNN, “We remain in regular contact with the foundations and entities who have donated art to the Center.”
The renovation plans and Trump’s effort to place his name on the building’s facade remain the subject of a legal dispute. Officials have said the REACH, a smaller venue within the complex, will continue to function as a temporary living memorial to Kennedy.
With the main building temporarily closed, donors and art enthusiasts fear that valuable works could be damaged during construction, misplaced or mistakenly discarded.
Josef Palermo, a former curator at the institution who has become a whistleblower, recalled how the Africa Lounge was emptied in a single day. The room contained dozens of works donated by African nations, including double doors carved from a tree said to be 700 years old in Nigeria.
“Walking into it when it was hollowed out and darkened and my heart really sank,” Palermo told CNN in an interview. “The room was completely stripped bare.”
The space is now being used for storage. The Kennedy Center has said the African artworks remain on site and that preservation work is underway.
“There is a major concern that a lot of this artwork is being pushed around the center,” a person who works with several donors told CNN.
People familiar with the situation said the institution has been receptive to some requests to display works elsewhere, but the discussions have largely been initiated by donors and artists rather than through a coordinated process led by the centre.
“It is a little bit disjointed response,” the person close to the Kennedy Center said. “Responses on this have been very inadequate or not clear, or you know ‘everything is safe and sound, rest assured’ kind of thing,” the person said, adding that donors were “not given any detail in any way.”
Sources also described the centre’s artwork cataloguing system as disorganised. Financial difficulties, staff reductions and changes to the building’s decor have added to the uncertainty.
Some staff members reportedly took home mementos during layoffs earlier this year, including signed Kennedy Center Honors posters that technically belong to the institution’s archives. Other valuable items, such as spare crystals for the Austrian chandelier, are stored in a facility designed to withstand fire and flooding.
The centre also leases a storage facility in Virginia, where some of the remaining Italian marble used for the building’s white facade is kept. The institution recently renewed the facility’s lease for another 10 years.
Earlier this year, the Kennedy Center appointed Olivia Herschel as lead archivist to oversee its collection records. Seven months later, the institution told CNN that “for the first time in our institution’s history, the collection has been comprehensively cataloged, marking a significant step in the preservation efforts of new leadership.”
Herschel has also become an informal point of contact for donors and artists seeking updates. Sources described her as respectful and engaged but questioned how much authority she has to guarantee outcomes under the current administration.
The Kennedy Center was conceived as a national cultural institution after World War II. President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1958 to establish a performing arts centre along the Potomac River, envisioned as an “artistic Mecca … that would be open to visitors from every land.”
Kennedy, a keen supporter of the arts, continued the project, while First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy helped lead fundraising efforts. During a televised fundraiser in 1962, the president explained why he believed the institution mattered.
“Today, as always, art knows no national boundaries,” he said. “The poet, the artist, the musician, continues the quiet work of centuries, building bridges of experience between peoples.”
“Art is political in the most profound sense,” Kennedy added.
He was assassinated less than a year later. In the aftermath of his death, foreign leaders offered artwork to the institution, which was subsequently named in his honour.
The donations included Italian marble from the Carrara mountains for the building’s facade, curtains from Canada for the Eisenhower Theater, Henri Matisse tapestries from France, specially designed planters from India, 11 concert hall chandeliers from Norway and a reproduction of a third-century mosaic from Tunisia.
As questions persist over the building’s future, some sources fear Trump could replace existing works with pieces that better reflect his preferences.
Palermo said he was instructed last year to remove all outdoor art, including the abstract sculpture Blue, because Trump wanted “all new art for the reopening.” The sculpture’s removal in September appeared to reinforce those concerns, although the Kennedy Center described the deinstallation, following seven years on display, as “common practice.”
Officials have denied plans for further immediate changes to the artwork currently on display.
However, the centre convened its first visual arts committee this month without a public announcement. The panel, comprising staff and board members, is expected to oversee the curation and expansion of public art installations, including rotating displays.
Recent additions to the REACH include gold-leaf portraits of Trump and Elon Musk on temporary loan, adding to the debate over how the institution’s visual identity may evolve during the renovation.
