The beleagured financier Leon Black was in talks with trustees of the Museum of Modern Art about his future with the museum in light of disturbing details about his ties to the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, The Post has learned.
A number of MoMA trustees have approached Black, co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, to step down as chairman of the museum when his term ends on July 1, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks.
The complicated matter, according to sources, is whether Black will remain on the board if he acts as chairman. The billionaire owner of precious works of art such as Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” has been a member of the MoMA board since 1997.
Should the museum sever ties with Black, who was elected chairman in 2018, it could jeopardize access to its unique collection, including the Raphael drawing ‘Head of a Young Apostle’ that Black donated for a $ 47 , 9 million in 2013, one source said.
“Remember, if MoMA Black kicks out, they lose a chance at his personal art collection,” this person said.
Another source denied that Black, a philanthropist and art lover, would deprive the floor museum of his collection, even if he were no longer a member of the board for more than 50 people.
Remember, if MoMA Black kicks out, they lose a chance at his personal art collection, says a source.
The talks come as the museum explodes with prominent artists such as Ai Weiwei and photographer Nan Goldin after it emerged in January that Black was paying Epstein $ 158 million for tax and estate planning advice following Epstein’s guilty plea in 2008 for the request of prostitution of a teenage girl.
Goldin told The Post she would not show her work at MoMA, even if she was looking for a NYC venue for a retrospective that started at the National Portrait Gallery in London before traveling through Europe.
“I told the museum director that he could not present my show to MoMA as long as Leon Black was there,” Goldin said. He played a role in putting pressure on other prominent art organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim and the Tate in London, to cut ties with the Sackler family behind the addictive painkiller OxyContin.
“I would love to show at MoMA, but you have to keep your ethics,” she said. “How can MoMA stand by Leon Black, a man in line with Jeffrey Epstein who was responsible for the sex trade with teenage girls?”
A month after he was arrested a second time in 2019, Epstein committed suicide in prison and charged with a sex trafficking operation involving dozens of underage girls, some as young as 14.
Black is not accused of any offense. But it seems that his conspicuous payments to a convicted sex offender hastened his decision to transfer the role of Apollo’s CEO to co-founder Marc Rowan in July. Black will remain chairman.
When the payments were made by a law firm Apollo in January amid pressure from investors, Black revealed the apology letter he wrote to Apollo investors to the board of MoMA. He concluded the letter by saying, “I look forward to seeing you at our board meeting in February,” according to the New York Times.
A source close to the MoMA board tells The Post that the note ‘rubbed people wrong’ given the seriousness of the situation. “After all, he had to retire as CEO of Apollo.”
Since then, the modern art museum has pushed back its planned council meeting twice in February – first until mid-March and then until the end of March, sources said. MoMA confirmed the delays, but insisted the repeated realignment had nothing to do with Black.
“The board scheduled its meeting in February to March to give its finance committees more time to address important issues before submitting it to the full board for consideration,” spokeswoman Amanda Hicks said. She declined to comment on whether members of the board had negotiated with Black about his future there.
Sources say that a decision, if reached, can already be announced at the next meeting.
Of course, Black is not the only MoMA trustee with 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 named a gallery after them. Artists, including the Guerrilla Girls, also demanded that Dubin retire.
Black declined to comment. Dubin, who had previously denied any wrongdoing, declined to comment.
One MoMA trustee who was not involved in the current talks personally supports keeping Black as chairman, saying he helped run the museum through a rough financial point.
“We are going through a very difficult financial situation and he has managed it excellently,” the curator said. ‘Leon was very good to the museum and he takes his work seriously. I hope he gets through this. ”
The curator also dismissed protests from artists such as Goldin and Ai as ‘extremely political’.
“I really believe that MoMA is not an institution of social change, it is a museum,” the curator said. “No one has sent him to the gallows yet, and I do not hope he goes to the gallows.”
As The Post reported earlier, Black promised not to cause problems when he took over in 2018 for Jerry Speyer, who has held the chairmanship for 11 years.
“And you know when Leon’s at the helm, you know he’ll love disasters, because that guy keeps up with all the modern masters,” Black sings in front of his art friends in the palace-like four-story Renaissance-style house. he owns on the Upper East Side, a former art gallery itself.