A slew of art galleries across New York City have been hit with anti-Israel graffiti and daubed with red paint — yet some gallery owners have controversially chosen to keep the attacks secret.
Insiders are divided on whether to dismiss the perpetrators as a nuisance and ignore them, or decry what they see as rank antisemitism. Some gallery owners say that they don’t want to lend credibility to the vandals by publicizing the attacks, and still others say that as artists, it would be hypocritical to repress expression.
The galleries range from small hipster operations on the Lower East Side with no obvious ties to Middle Eastern politics to a grand Fifth Avenue institution headed by a prominent Jewish leader.
Over the last couple of weeks, some of the galleries have been postered with signs quoting purported Palestinian death tolls and the words, “Stop selling to Zionists. Stop working with Zionists,” while the elite Pace gallery was scrawled with the word “Intifada” in red letters. Many more have been splattered with red paint, apparently intended to represent blood.
The vandals seem to have targeted Pace, which had to close for the day to remove the graffiti, over its representation of Israeli artist Michal Rovner, according to ArtNews. The gallery posted Rovner’s video work, called “Signals,” which calls for a return of the hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Between Friday night and Saturday morning, the exterior of our 540 West 25th Street gallery was vandalized,” the blue-chip gallery told in a statement. “The vandalism was extensive enough to necessitate the gallery’s closure while we complete clean-up efforts. The safety of our staff and visitors to our galleries is of the utmost importance, as is our commitment to fostering a safe and open workplace that respects differences of thought within our community.”
It continued, “We are a gallery that consists of a…
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