Harassed financier Leon Black has been in talks with Museum of Modern Art administrators about his future with the museum in light of disturbing details about his links to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to The Post.
Several MoMA patrons have addressed Black, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, about resigning from the museum’s presidency when his term ends on July 1, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
Complicated issues, according to sources, are whether Black will continue to be a board member if he leaves the presidency. The billionaire owner of beautiful works of art such as “The Scream” by Edvard Munch has been a member of the MoMA board since 1997.
If the museum breaks its ties with Black, who was elected president in 2018, it could jeopardize its access to its unique collection, including Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Young Apostle” that Black bought for recorded $ 47.9 million in 2013, a source said.
“Remember, if MoMA expels blacks, they lose the opportunity of their personal art collection,” that person said.
Another source denied that Black, a philanthropist and art lover, would deprive the famous museum of his collection, even if he were no longer a board member of more than 50 people.
Remember that if MoMA throws Black, they lose the possibility of their personal art collection, says a source.
The talks come as prominent artists such as Ai Weiwei and photographer Nan Goldin bounce off the museum after it was learned in January that Black paid Epstein $ 158 million in tax and estate planning advice following Epstein’s guilty plea. in 2008 to sue a teenage girl for prostitution.
Goldin told The Post that he will not show his work at the MoMA even when he is looking for a place in New York for a retrospective that began at the National Portrait Gallery in London before traveling around Europe.
“I told the museum director that I couldn’t offer my exhibit at MoMA while Leon Black was there,” said Goldin, who played a role under pressure from other prominent art organizations, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. , the Guggenheim and London, to sever ties with the Sackler family behind the OxyContin painkiller.
“I’d love to show it at MoMA, but you have to follow your ethics,” he said. “How can MoMA defend itself against Leon Black, a man aligned with Jeffrey Epstein who was responsible for the sex trafficking of teenage girls?”
Epstein committed suicide in prison a month after being arrested a second time in 2019 and accused of leading a sex trafficking operation involving dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14 years old.
Black has not been charged with any offense. But his spectacular payments to a convicted sex offender appear to have accelerated his decision to hand over the role of Apollo CEO to co-founder Marc Rowan in July. Black will continue as president.
When payments were revealed in January by an Apollo law firm hired amid investor pressure, Black sent MoMA’s board the letter of apology he had written to Apollo investors. He concluded the letter by saying, “I look forward to seeing you at the February board meeting,” according to the New York Times.
A source close to the MoMA board explains to The Post that the note “rubs people in the wrong way” given the gravity of the situation. “After all, he had to leave the position of CEO of Apollo.”
Since then, the museum of modern art has twice pushed back the scheduled board meeting in February, first in mid-March and then in late March, sources said. MoMA has confirmed the delays, but has insisted the repeated rescheduling has nothing to do with Black.
“The Board rescheduled the meeting from February to March to allow its finance committees more time to address some important issues before presenting them to the full Board for consideration,” said spokeswoman Amanda Hicks. She declined to comment on whether board members have been negotiating with Black about her future there.
Sources say that if taken, a decision could be announced as soon as the next meeting.
Of course, Black is not the only MoMA administrator who has ties to Black. Trustee Glenn Dubin and his wife Eva had a personal relationship with Epstein before and after his conviction in 2008, and MoMA has named them a gallery. Artists like the Guerrilla Girls have also called for Dubin to step down.
Black declined to comment. Dubin, who has previously denied any offense, also declined to comment.
A MoMA administrator who is not involved in the current talks personally supports keeping Black as president, saying he has been helping to run the museum through a rough financial approach.
“We are going through very hard times financially and he has achieved it brilliantly,” the trustee said. “Leon has been very good with the museum and takes his work seriously. I hope he succeeds. “
The Catalan Ombudsman also rejected the protests of artists such as Goldin and Ai as “extremely political”.
“I think MoMA is not an institution of social change, it’s a museum,” the trustee said. “No one has sent him to the gallows yet and I hope he doesn’t go to the gallows.”
As reported by The Post earlier, Black promised not to cause trouble when he took over in 2018 from Jerry Speyer, who had served as president for 11 years.
“And you know when Leon will be at the helm, you know he’ll keep us from disaster, because this guy keeps up with all the modern masters,” Black sang in front of his art friends in the palatine four-story Renaissance-style house . he owns the Upper East Side, a former art gallery.