Giuliani Threatened Brooklyn Museum Funding Over 1999 'Sensation' Show

1 articles · Updated · artnet News · Jun 12

Rudy Giuliani threatened to cut Brooklyn Museum funding after the 1999 New York stop of “Sensation” featured Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary,” which incorporated elephant dung.
The clash became the year’s defining New York art controversy because the Young British Artists exhibition had already drawn crowds and backlash in London and Berlin before arriving in Brooklyn.
The report frames the episode as a lasting culture-war flashpoint from the late 1990s, when the Knicks’ last NBA Finals run coincided with a very different art world.
That 1999 backdrop included the 48th Venice Biennale, a pre-boom art-fair scene, and a global contemporary art network that was still taking shape.

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Will today's NYC art hubs face the same gentrification that followed the 1973 Knicks' win and SoHo's art boom?

Beyond coincidence, is there a deeper link between a city's sports success and the vitality of its contemporary art scene?

The 1973 Scull Sale professionalized the art market. What trend is similarly reshaping how we value and trade art today?

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