SB PM: The state of art

A brief look at government efforts to censor museums in the 21st century

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would conduct a comprehensive review of the Smithsonian museums, following an executive order in March that directed an overhaul of exhibitions and programs that “degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.” Yesterday’s directive, which involves removing content deemed “divisive,” is framed by a return to “American greatness and unity.”

Michael Albertus, a University of Chicago political scientist, said that the Trump administration’s move is part of a broader attempt to “define what it means to be American in a more restrictive and ideological way that is suitable for their political interests.” He said that changing dominant narratives in this way is consistent with a global trend toward state oversight of cultural, intellectual, and artistic institutions.

That trend, according to University of Pennsylvania historian Benjamin Nathans, is one with the ultimate aim of “quietly dismantling the system of divided powers and checks and balances.”

Before I studied history in college, I studied theater at my arts-focused middle and high school in Denver. I loved being surrounded by all kinds of creativity every day. And when I visited my grandmother in D.C. as I was growing up, I spent hot summer days wandering through the National Portrait Gallery, the Hirshhorn, and the American history museum. My interests in art and culture and their influence on societies have made me particularly curious about this moment, so I looked at a few other examples of state regulation and censorship during this century.

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China

Museums of the state
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls historical narrative through its vast museum network. The Museum of the Communist Party of China, the National Museum of China, and countless regional museums glorify CCP history while omitting events such as the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Cultural Revolution.

Exhibits are framed through the official ideology of “national rejuvenation.”

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Australia

Review of the National Museum of Australia
Following criticism from conservative commentators, the government appointed a review panel in 2003 to inspect museum content for alleged “black armband” interpretations of Australian history. While few changes followed, the move spurred self-censorship.

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Türkiye

Museums of denial and national identity
The Justice and Development Party has defunded, censored, or removed monuments and exhibitions it deemed unpatriotic — particularly those that recognize the Armenian genocide.

The Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum was built to recognize Turks massacred and “subjected to Armenian atrocities” during World War I and the Turkish-Armenian War. The reframe is part of the persistent nationalist denial of the Armenian genocide. In their book, Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide, Deborah Blythe, Guillaume Perrier, and Laure Marchand call the monument “the ultimate caricature of the Turkish government’s policy of denying the 1915 genocide by rewriting history and transforming victims into guilty parties.”

The Monument to Humanity, which was sculpted to symbolize reconciliation with Armenia, in 2011 was ordered by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, today the president of the Republic of Türkiye, to be demolished after he called the monument a “freak.”

The Istanbul Modern and other institutions have faced censorship and administrative pressure for showcasing dissenting narratives.

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Poland

Cultural purges in museums
The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government dismissed directors of several museums, including the Museum of the Second World War and Muzeum Sztuki, over perceived ideological bias in the last decade. International art leaders condemned the moves.

Paweł Machcewicz, a historian at the Polish Academy of Sciences, was the director of the Museum of the Second World War until 2017. He was removed from his post shortly after the museum he helped design opened. Read Politico’s Q&A with Machcewicz, in which the historian describes “a very strong feeling of déjà vu” after reading Trump’s March 27, 2025 executive order to eliminate “divisive race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian museums.

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Hungary

Hungary’s campaign against “homosexual propaganda”
Following a long history of artistic and cultural censorship, in the last decade, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has made a strong effort to specifically censor LGBTQ+ representation. In 2018, the final 15 performances of Billy Elliot at the Hungarian State Opera were canceled after pro-Orbán media denounced it as “gay propaganda.” In 2023, the head of the Hungarian National Museum was fired for exhibiting photographs that included images depicting men in women’s clothing.

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France

China’s soft power
French museums including the Musée Guimet reportedly removed references to “Tibet” and “Uyghur” from their exhibits last year under pressure from Chinese authorities.

The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris renamed its Tibetan collection label from “Tibet” to “Xizang Autonomous Region,” and the Musée Guimet replaced “Tibet” with “Himalayan world” for its Tibetan exhibits. The change followed sustained pressure from China, particularly amid the 60th anniversary of Franco-Chinese diplomatic relations and collaborative cultural events planned for 2024. Critics argue this shift is part of a broader sinicization effort by China to rewrite history and diminish the distinct identity of Tibet.