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\n\tThe United States National Committee of the International Council of Museums released a statement Tuesday pledging its \u201cunwavering support\u201d for the Smithsonian Institution, as it faces repeated assaults on its integrity and independence by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the statement, ICOM-US said that it was speaking out in response to the recent congressional hearings, in which Anthea Hartig, the director of the institution\u2019s National Museum of American History, was grilled over allegations that the institution has failed in its duty to preserve and present the nation\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the statement stops short of rebutting the Trump administration\u2019s claims that the Smithsonian is subject to \u201cextreme political activism,\u201d it more generally affirms that museums are \u201cguided by scholarship, professional expertise, ethical practice, and intellectual integrity,\u201d implicitly including the Smithsonian among those guided by such principles.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe stand alongside the American Alliance of Museums in affirming the essential role museums play in American civic life and the importance of safeguarding their independence, integrity, and public trust,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe reference to the AAM is to a statement made by the professional body in July that more explicitly rebuked the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on the Smithsonian. \u201cEfforts to politicize how museums present history, art, science, culture, and the natural world\u2014and personal attacks on the museum professionals who carry out that work\u2014threaten the integrity and independence of museums across the country,\u201d AAM\u2019s statement reads. \u201cIf scholarship at our nation\u2019s leading museum system can become subject to political influence, no museum is beyond reach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tICOM-US\u2019s public statement is notable given that the organization adopted a new code of ethics in June, its first revision in over 20 years. In that document, ICOM calls on museums to \u201cresist financial or political influence\u201d and that, \u201c[r]egardless of funding sources or governance models, museums should maintain control of the content and integrity of their activities, exhibitions and publications.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2231277683.jpg?w=1024″] The United States National Committee of the International Council of Museums released a statement Tuesday pledging its \u201cunwavering support\u201d for the Smithsonian Institution, as it faces repeated assaults on its integrity and independence by the Trump administration. In the statement, ICOM-US said that it was speaking out in response to the recent […]<\/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-2090694","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\/2090694","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=2090694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}