The September 2026 removal of a sculpture from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., has prompted criticism.

The move is understood by arts activists as reflecting United States President Donald Trump’s wider efforts to appropriate and rebrand the Center and curtail modern styles at federal facilities.

The Associated Press reports that a “Trump-aligned board” at the Center is fighting in court for the right to put Trump’s name on the historic institution.

Read more: Trump has gotten rid of many of the checks and balances that could stop him from demolishing the Kennedy Center

Trump took aim at “modernist” architecture and promoted “traditional” and “classical” structures in two executive orders issued in 2020 and 2025.

The group Hands Off the Arts, described the decision to remove artist Joel Shapiro’s sculpture Blue as “authoritarian” and as an act of “vandalism.”

The large blue geometric sculpture playfully evoked the human form in motion. Born in 1941, the late Shapiro was known for bridging modernism and postmodernism with sculptures that combined minimalist abstraction with figuration and movement.

In addition to the Kennedy Center, Trump has sought to transform Washington D.C. in other ways.

His demolition of the East Wing of the White House, repainting of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and plans to build a new triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery have all raised questions about legal and regulatory limits on presidential actions impacting cultural heritage.

Read more: Trump wants an ‘Independence Arch’ — How famous arches warn about dangers to republics

Outside of Washington D.C., work on the border wall between the U.S.........

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