Tag: museums

Trump Admin Sets Its Sights on the Smithsonian For Pushing Divisive Political Narratives

The White House has taken aim at the Smithsonian Institution, accusing it of using public money to advance partisan views.

At the center of the controversy is the Entertainment Nation exhibit at the National Museum of American History.

The exhibit includes interpretations of pop culture that frame elements of American history as imperialist, racist, or violent.

One panel claims early American entertainment was marked by “extraordinary violence.”

Another says Mickey Mouse’s appearance was influenced by “blackface minstrelsy.”

The Lone Ranger is framed as symbolic of U.S. imperialism, while Indiana Jones and Ronald Reagan are described in terms that raise questions about American self-image.

Even pop singer Selena is featured in a section focused on identity politics.

White House official Lindsey Halligan told Fox News Digital, “The Smithsonian Institution should present history in a way that is accurate, balanced, and consistent with the values that make the United States of America exceptional.”

She confirmed an audit of content across Smithsonian museums is already underway.

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‘Predatory Indoctrination’: Parents Outraged Over Museum Of Natural History’s New Video Aimed At Kids

Although the Trump administration has made significant inroads toward eradicating the taxpayer-supported spread of transgender ideology across America’s youth, some examples of the insidious practice still remain.

Most recently, New York’s Museum of Natural History began drawing harsh criticism from parents and others who oppose an eight-minute video being played on a loop inside the museum.

“Dragfox,” a stop-motion-animated production, tells the story of a fox who takes a “magical journey” with a cross-dressing boy wearing his sister’s dress.

The thinly veiled pro-trans message wasn’t lost on a slew of parents and children’s advocates, as the New York Post reported:

De-transitioner Oli London rejected the film’s sentiment that transitioning magically brings happiness.

“Children should not be exposed to gender ideology in any format,” said London, who’s 35 and detransitioned two years after beginning the grueling process.

He railed against the animated film aimed at “targeting” youngsters by including a character with a “cute, friendly-looking fox . . . encouraging them to become confused with their gender identity and become trans. Children should be off-limits from radical gender ideology.”

Parents accused the museum of straying from its mission to “discover, interpret, and disseminate —through scientific research and education — knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”

Instead of understanding science, they’re “ignoring” it by “presenting something that’s ideological as scientific fact,” said Natalya Murakhaver, an UWS mom-of-two and documentary filmmaker, who blasted the screening as “predatory behavior for young, impressionable children.

“I think we have activists running the museum who are trying to portray their idea of reality as fact, when it’s actually ideological,” she added.

But “Dragfox” director, Lisa Ott, exulted during a 2024 BAFTA award acceptance speech that the short “celebrates drag queens and trans joy.” The singular goal of the film was to “have one little queer kid or trans child out there feel a little bit less alone.”

The festival is a way to “step beyond your comfort zone to listen, feel, and see yourself reflected in the stories presented on screen,” insisted Jacqueline Handy, the AMNH Director of Public Programs.

It’s more insidious than that, said downtown mom of two, Jacqueline Toboroff. Showing a loaded film aimed at kids is “predatory indoctrination” meant to sow chaos, she said.

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Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting ‘Anti-American Ideology’ At Smithsonian Museums

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting “anti-American Ideology” in the Smithsonian Institution.

On Thursday, Trump signed the order aimed at removing “anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution and restoring monuments that were removed during the past five years.

The executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directs Vice President JD Vance to remove “improper partisan ideology” from the Smithsonian, which the order claims has promoted the idea that American history is “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”

“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth,” the order states.

“This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”

According to the Smithsonian Institution website, they were founded in 1846 as a public-private partnership.

The order states that one aspect of this “anti-American ideology” the administration plans to address is how the Biden Administration supported training by an organization that pushes for undermining “Western foundations” at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, where Park Rangers were told their racial identity should govern how they interpret history to tourists.

Another issue the order will address is the American Art Museum which currently features an exhibit that purports to show how “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and claims that the United States has “used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”

Several more facets of this “anti-American ideology” will be addressed, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture which has proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture.”

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British gallery may lose prized £500,000 Renoir over claim Seated Nude is Nazi loot seized from original Jewish owners

A British gallery may be forced to give up a prized £500,000 Renoir after claims it could have been seized from its original Jewish owners by the Nazis.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Manchester Art Gallery is now treating the Impressionist painting – known as Seated Nude, from around 1897 – as a potential looted or ‘spoliated’ object.

The gallery has been approached by claimants who believe they may be the rightful owners of the oil painting.

If their claim of ownership is proved, the gallery could be forced to hand over the artwork.

Details of the investigation are included in a document obtained by the MoS under freedom of information laws.

It states: ‘This painting is under investigation as a spoliated object, which means it may have been stolen from or sold under duress by its Jewish owner during the period of Nazi power in Europe.’

Both sides agree that the artwork was once the property of Richard Semmel, a German-born Jewish art collector and entrepreneur.

Semmel and his wife Clara, who fled Germany for Holland in 1933, managed to arrange for the sale of about 70 of their artworks to pay for their living expenses.

It is believed the Renoir nude was offered up for the sale but did not sell.

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FBI Joins Hunt for Missing Ancient Treasures from British Museum!

The FBI has joined the Metropolitan Police of Britain in the investigation of the sale of hundreds of artifacts believed to have been stolen from the British Museum in an alleged “inside job.” The US crime agency is aiding the search for approximately 1,500 items reportedly stolen by a former senior curator and sold on eBay. One of the stolen artifacts, an amethyst gem depicting the Roman god Cupid, was sold on eBay by “sultan1966,” a username allegedly linked to Dr. Peter Higgs, who was dismissed from the museum last year.

‘Paul Higgins’: An Alias of Disrepute

While no arrests or charges have been made, the British Museum is pursuing a civil case against Higgs, claiming he stole items from its storerooms and sold them online for over a decade. Higgs is defending himself against these claims. According to court documents, Higgs admitted that the eBay account “sultan1966” belonged to him.

Tonio Birbiglia, an antiquities dealer from New Orleans, told the BBC that he purchased the amethyst gem from sultan1966 in May 2016 for £42 ($55) along with an orange scarab beetle for £170 ($216). Birbiglia said the seller identified himself as “Paul Higgins” and used Higgs’s personal email address. He expressed shock when contacted by the FBI and mentioned he could not recall the purchases as he likely bought the gems to resell. When he asked for more information to help trace the items, he received no response.

The FBI is now assisting with the investigation of 268 items sold in the Washington DC area by the same seller. The museum has already recovered 626 missing items and identified another 100 that have been located but not yet returned. The museum acknowledged the difficulty in recovering all items, as many were uncatalogued, and some are fragments of larger objects.

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Curator at American Museum of Natural History Arrested in Turkey for Allegedly Smuggling Spiders and Scorpions

Science or resource plunder? The frontier is sometimes not entirely clear.

Police in Turkey reportedly arrested a man suspected of trying to smuggle valuable poisonous spiders and scorpions out of the country.

Turkish state media identifying the suspect on Monday as a curator at New York’s American Museum of Natural History.

Reuters reported:

“Police arrested the suspect at Istanbul Airport on Sunday and seized dozens of bags from his luggage containing some 1,500 scorpions and spiders, including tarantulas, as well as dozens of plastic bottles containing unspecified liquids, police said.

The state-owned Anadolu news agency reported the suspect was Lorenzo Prendini, a curator at the historic U.S. museum, without specifying a source.”

The American Museum of Natural History did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“Police said the specimens seized were endemic to Turkey and that their DNA could be copied and their poisons milked for use in making medicines. The suspect faces charges under anti-smuggling law, it added without giving a name.

‘It is understood that these medicines have very high financial values and therefore taking these animal species abroad is strictly forbidden’, [Turkish Police] said.”

Research quoted by Police showed that the market value of one litre of ‘medicine’ obtained from scorpion venom was supposedly worth $10 million.

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London Museum’s ‘LGBTQ Audio Guide’ Wrongly Claims British Monarch Was ‘Person Of Colour’

A London museum is facing backlash after it was revealed that a special ‘LGBTQ audio guide’ it is providing to visitors is claiming that the wife of King George III was mixed race.

The audio guide is being used in the Queen’s House in Greenwich, a publicly funded part of Royal Museums Greenwich.

A section of the guide references a large golden sculpture of Queen Charlotte, claiming: “Queen Charlotte, the nation’s first royal person of colour.”

The guide then states “Yep, you heard me. The insecure white boys writing history conveniently forget to mention that bit, because… well, structural racism.”

There is no evidence at all that the queen, who was of German ancestry, was of any other heritage than white European. 

Indeed, it appears that one basis for the claim may be that the Netflix series Bridgerton and its spin off show Queen Charlotte has a mixed race actor playing the role of the queen.

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Museum Claims Dinosaurs Have “LGBTQ History” And Birds Are “Queer”

A museum in Britain has claimed that some birds are “queer” and that the history of animal queerness has been “hidden from the public”.

The Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is running an LGBTQ history exhibition funded by Arts Council England which claims that some birds are “queer” because they “change their sex from female to male.”

The Telegraph notes that the claims about birds such as pheasants are completely unfounded and have no scientific basis.

The exhibition, in association with a group called the Hastings Queer History Collective, further claims that arguments about “queer” behaviour in the animal world being “unnatural” are undermined by the behaviour of game birds.

A pamphlet available at the museum states “Despite queer behaviour in the animal kingdom being observed as far back as the 18th century, it is often ignored or hidden from the public,” adding “One example is of female pheasants changing their sex when they stop laying eggs and turn their brown feathers into the brightly coloured feathering typical of males.”

“Pheasants feature in some of the earliest European studies of queer behaviour in animals,” it continues, adding “With queerness visible in the natural world, the argument that it is somehow ‘unnatural’ begins to unravel.”

All of this is just totally made up nonsense.

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Trannysaurus Rex: The Activist Academics ‘Queering’ Dinosaurs

Recently, I wrote about North Hertfordshire Museum’s pathetic attempts to imply the ancient (male, moustachioed) Roman Emperor Elagabalus was actually a transgender woman. If you thought this was ridiculous, there is a museum in the United States which possesses a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton which came out as nonbinary back in 2017, proudly announcing it was now a user of they/them pronouns on Twitter.

The Chicago Field Museum, where the T. rex lives and tweets, justified this lunacy on the spurious grounds that it is quite difficult to determine the sex of old dinosaur specimens (it’s not even certain if such creatures had true external genitalia at all). Therefore, as curators did not know for sure whether the specimen was a boy-lizard or a girl-lizard, they made the insane leap in logic that it was actually a trans one.

Do please further note from the above tweet that, although museum staff profess not to know whether their T. rex is male or female, they have somehow managed to accurately determine its star sign.

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Museum claims black women ‘more likely to die of the plague’ in medieval London because of ‘premodern structural racism’

A museum has claimed black women were more likely to die of the plague in medieval London because of ‘premodern structural racism’.

The new study, which fails to put an estimate on how many black people were living in the capital during the period, examined the remains of just 145 individuals – from the time of a plague which killed nearly half of London’s 70,000-strong population. 

What is now often referred to as the Black Death killed millions of people across Europe and Asia between 1348 and 1350. 

The first recorded African resident in the capital was a man called Cornelius, who was in London in 1593. However, one of the researchers involved in the study claimed that the medieval capital of England was ‘a black London’. 

The remains that were studied by researchers from the Museum of London and academics in the US came from three London cemeteries, but only 49 of the sample actually died from the plague.  

The research found there were significantly higher proportions of people of colour and those of Black African descent in plague burials compared to non-plague burials.

Nine plague victims appeared to be of African heritage, while 40 seemed to have white European or Asian ancestry. Among the remains in non-plague burials, the figures were eight and 88 respectively.    

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