Kehinde Wiley asks Trump to let him buy back the painting removed from the embassy in the Dominican Republic

American artist Kehinde Wiley has asked to buy back his work Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, removed from the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, calling the removal part of the Trump administration’s cultural “purge”.

Artist Kehinde Wiley sent a certified letter to President Donald Trump asking to buy back his painting if the administration decides to sell the work removed from the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic, Artlyst reports, citing the artist’s recent interview with the New York Times.

The letter, sent on Thursday, September 24, was also addressed to U.S. Ambassador in Santo Domingo Leah Campos; to Erin Scavino — head of the State Department’s “Art in Embassies” program and a former The Apprentice contestant; and to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Wiley asks that the painting Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 (2015), commissioned in 2013 by the federal “Art in Embassies” program, be returned to him if the administration no longer wants it. According to Artlyst, the artist spent two years studying Dominican painters, while four local art students posed against a floral backdrop.

The painting was removed from the embassy earlier this year. Ambassador Campos described the work in a Spanish-language radio interview as a “lesbian picnic” in a park with flowers, while Scavino called it “aesthetically terrible” and took credit for the decision to remove it.

“If the administration isn’t interested in the work, bring it home. Give it to me. It was a very successful painting and it’s a shame it was so little understood,” Wiley told the New York Times on Monday, as Artlyst writes. Asked whether the removal of the work had homophobic motives, he replied: “Was it homophobic? It’s possible.” “Maybe it happened that I’m the guy who painted Obama. That’s the elephant in the room,” he added.

The case is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to “purge” American cultural institutions, from the Smithsonian to the Kennedy Center, according to Artlyst. The White House declined to comment, while the State Department and Scavino did not respond to requests for comment. Meanwhile, Wiley is preparing his first major U.S. exhibition in nearly two years, opening November 6 at the Sean Kelly gallery in Manhattan, with nearly a dozen new paintings.