Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team sets its sights on US’s National Gallery

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Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team has set its sights on the National Gallery of Art, as the billionaire’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency looks beyond gutting federal agencies to targeting pillars of the US’s cultural life.

Emissaries from Doge visited the premier cultural institution in Washington DC — which houses world-class collections of European and American art — on Thursday and met the museum’s leadership, according to people familiar with the matter, despite the gallery ostensibly operating at arm’s-length from the White House.

Doge’s intentions at the National Gallery are as yet unclear and a representative for the initiative did not respond to a request for comment. 

But the move by Doge comes as the Trump administration expands an assault on the US’s cultural institutions as part of its war against so-called woke ideology. The president last month issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that took aim at the Smithsonian Institution for its depictions of race and gender.

Trump has also taken control of the Kennedy Center — Washington DC’s largest and most prominent performing arts venue — pledging that there would be “no more drag shows or other anti-American propaganda” at the site. The move prompted a backlash from artists and performers.

The National Gallery has so far escaped the wrath of the administration. Members of the new cabinet even celebrated Trump’s inauguration at the venue in January.

Following donations of Old Master paintings and sculptures from then Treasury secretary and prodigious collector Andrew Mellon, the gallery was formally established by Congress in 1937. It is run by a board composed of US Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts, the Treasury secretary, the secretary of state and five trustees.

The vast bulk of the National Gallery’s funding, however, comes from the annual federal budget — which Doge has vowed to slash by $1tn.

In the last fiscal year, the museum received almost $210mn from the US government, which allowed the institution to pay salaries and keep admission free for all.

In January, the National Gallery removed references to diversity and inclusion from its website, after an executive order signed by Trump deemed such initiatives “illegal”. The move came just months after the gallery asked Congress for more funds, in part to ensure it could “focus on diversity, equity, access, and inclusion” and diversify its collection to “include more under-represented artists and groups”.

In a statement responding to Doge’s visit, the National Gallery emphasised it was an “independent trust establishment of the United States created by an act of Congress in 1937”.

“As a public-private partnership, we have worked with every administration since our inception and will continue to work with the Administration and Congress while we remain focused on fulfilling our mission to preserve and share artistic excellence with all Americans,” it said.