PROF. SERGIO ANSUINI| ROME, 23 JANUARY 2026
Those who listened to President Trump’s speech in Davos have confirmation that the world has turned a page. Globalism, born from the belief in an arrogant idea of total and definitive geopolitical victory, has come to an end. Along with it also end the multilateral organizations that support it and a dominant ideology that permeates Western society. It would be naïve to think that culture, which has always been a support of power, could remain untouched by the collapse of this system. Years of direction have permeated not only top positions, but also a large part of those where things are actually done.
When a pendulum is pushed too far to one side, it always swings back violently and goes well beyond the midpoint. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine that everything will evolve without painful shocks. For decades the USA have shaped our cultural and artistic path and are now shaken by this violent reaction imposed by the new administration and supported by the majority of the nation. If it is true that New York and London are the cities of art galleries, it is equally true that Washington, with its national museums, is the heart of the cultural hub. We must look to the capital to understand the scale of the global clash and its artistic and cultural component. The Republican administration has understood its importance, and the push for the pendulum’s return is powerful.
This is not a mild and temporary change at the top within the logic of the spoil system, but a total realignment, including the bureaucratic operational structure. A climate of intimidation is reported, fostering fear of losing one’s job. To shake a consolidated ideological-political system, perhaps excessive measures are being implemented, such as the creation of DOGE, which cuts federal jobs, the presence of a “militia” like ICE with its deterrent force, and ultimately the muscular street patrols carried out by the National Guard. Constitutional challenges have been launched.
(Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)
Marco Rubio oversees the place where presidential documents and the “Declaration of Independence” are preserved. With the executive order of August 27, 2025, “truth is restored” and “improper ideologies” are removed. The action is aimed at countering “corrosive ideologies,” attempts to “rewrite history,” and to “promote national shame,” namely the woke program that places slavery, the extermination of Indigenous peoples, and the defense of minorities at the center of history. A large national garden with statues of 250 American Heroes is planned.
Gone are the days when Kim Sajet commissioned artists of color Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to create the portraits of Barack Obama and his wife. Donald Trump has taken control of the Smithsonian Institution. Jason Moran, artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the USA, and others have been removed, more or less voluntarily.
(Pierre Huyghe, Untitled (Human Mask), 2014)
Globalist ideology still permeates the West, and we see most curators organizing exhibitions with a strong and determined orientation that places barriers to free thought. Unfortunately, art is entangled with politics, and we must witness reprimands from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who highlights the distance Italy is taking from Russian art, with statements such as: “Italy is one of the few countries that cancels agreed tours by our opera singers, such as those of Ildar Abdrazakov”, to which other forms of artistic intolerance are added.
Everything is still evolving. We are at the beginning of an epochal movement with new paradigms whose destination we do not yet know. For decades, the United States, in art and culture, have been our driving force. We are still at the flutter of a butterfly’s wings that could bring a hurricane to us.
(La Nascita di Venere, Sandro Botticelli – Firenze 1445 – 1510)
If we observe contemporary art and compare it to Renaissance art, we perceive a dark gloom. These are our times. We hope that this darkness, which mirrors today’s collective feeling, will transform into the light of hope.
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, Sotheby’s Auction House presents a week, from January 24 to 27, 2026, of auctions featuring American art and objects.
Charles Peale Polk (1767–1822), George Washington, oil on canvas, 91.4 × 70.5 cm, executed around 1790–1793. Estimate $400,000–600,000.