John Galliano Cancels Planned New York Retrospective Amid Outcry Over Antisemitic Remarks

John Galliano withdrew from a planned retrospective at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art after weeks of controversy over his past antisemitic remarks.

The exhibition, titled “Horizons,” was due to open in May 2027 alongside the Met Gala. It would have focused entirely on the British designer’s work, which made him one of Paris’s leading couturiers from the 1990s onward. Galliano previously led Givenchy and Dior, but Dior dismissed him in 2011 after a video emerged showing him making antisemitic remarks in a café while heavily intoxicated.

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With great sadness, I have decided that it is better that it does not go ahead at this time.

In the video, Galliano said Jewish people’s ancestors should have been gassed and that he loved Hitler. He also insulted Asian people present at the café. A court convicted him, but he avoided prison after the judge concluded that he needed help rather than punishment. His career subsequently declined, although he later made a cautious return at Martin Margiela.

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I remain fully responsible for the pain I caused in the past with my words, especially to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I am still deeply sorry.

The proposed retrospective brought him back into the center of public attention. Criticism continued in New York, which has a large Jewish community, and important Met donors reportedly threatened to withdraw their support if the exhibition proceeded. A meeting had been planned to discuss the exhibition’s future, but Galliano canceled it before that meeting took place.

“With great sadness, I have decided that it is better that it does not go ahead at this time,” Galliano wrote on Instagram. He said he remained fully responsible for the pain his words had caused, especially among Jewish and Asian communities, and did not want debate over his role to place the Met in a difficult position or distract from the museum’s “fantastic work.”

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fantastic work