[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/for_media_extsouth_1_hi_brad_feinknopf.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tMembers of the Wexner Center for the Arts union have called on university leadership to rename the institution, citing Leslie Wexner\u2019s documented ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
\n\tWexner Workers United announced on social media yesterday that it had sent a formal letter to Ohio State University president, provost, and board of trustees demanding that they remove the Wexner name from the building\u2019s facade and begin the process of renaming the Wexner Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs a contemporary arts center showcasing and commissioning the work of our present time, we are inherently entwined with the relevant and urgent events of today,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cJeffrey Epstein\u2019s orchestration of a high-profile sex-trafficking operation has long been established, and Les Wexner\u2019s name appears more than 1,300 times in the Department of Justice\u2019s Epstein files.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the letter\u2014posted in full on Instagram\u2014the union argues that Wexner\u2019s connection to Epstein meets the university\u2019s criteria for requesting a building name change, citing \u201csubstantial evidence of misconduct or other inappropriate behavior by the individual or entity.\u201d Furthermore, the letter argues that retaining the Wexner name undermines the university\u2019s stated commitment to \u201cexcellence,\u201d as well as its values of \u201cintegrity and inclusiveness\u201d\u2014all criteria cited in the institution\u2019s policy governing building name changes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOur staff members, including many Ohio State students, are being harassed on a daily basis because the Wexner name is on our building,\u201d the letter continues. \u201cArtists are choosing not to work with us because of the Wexner\u2019s close association with Epstein.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the union notes, there is recent precedent for renaming spaces at major art institutions under similar circumstances. In 2019, the Louvre Museum removed the Sackler name from its galleries amid accusations that the family had amassed its fortune while helping fuel the opioid crisis. The Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2014facing pressure from a number of high-profile artists, including Kara Walker, Nan Goldin, and Ai Weiwei\u2014followed suit two years later, as did the Serpentine Galleries and the Guggenheim Museum, among others.<\/p>\n
\n\tLeslie Wexner, the founder of Bath & Body Works and a prominent art collector, became the subject of renewed scrutiny in 2024 after his name appeared in unsealed court documents related to a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein, who died by reported suicide in 2019. Those documents, along with additional tranches released last year by the Department of Justice, under pressure from Congress, widely referred to as the \u201cEpstein Files,\u201d implicated powerful figures across the business and political spheres in a sex-trafficking operation orchestrated by Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWexner\u2019s name on our building does a profound disservice to the incredible artists we work with and to our community members who deserve to engage with art without feeling complicity in supporting human traffickers, rapists, and pedophiles,\u201d the letter concludes.<\/p>\n
\n\tWexner has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein\u2019s criminal activity. However, their relationship had already come under public scrutiny by 2002, when a feature published in New York Magazine <\/em>examined what it described as a \u201cweird relationship\u201d involving a high-end housing development project financed largely by Wexner.<\/p>\n ARTnews<\/em> has reached out to Wexner Workers United and the Wexner Center for the Arts for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/citing-epstein-ties-wexner-union-demands-leslie-wexners-name-be-dropped-from-art-center-1234786645\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/for_media_extsouth_1_hi_brad_feinknopf.jpg?w=1024″] Members of the Wexner Center for the Arts union have called on university leadership to rename the institution, citing Leslie Wexner\u2019s documented ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Wexner Workers United announced on social media yesterday that it had sent a formal letter to Ohio State University president, provost, and board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1950032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1950032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1950032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1950032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1950032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}