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Tuesday, 28 March, 2000, 17:57 GMT 18:57 UK
Giuliani forced into climbdown
![]() People queueing to enter the Brooklyn Museum of Art
By Jane Hughes in New York
The row over a controversial British art exhibition in New York has ended with the city's mayor agreeing to drop his attempts to withhold funding from the museum which staged it. Museum directors in the United States had argued that Mr Giuliani's action against the Brooklyn museum would set a worrying precedent. This is an embarrassing climbdown for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at a time when he is already facing political difficulties.
Mr Giuliani took offence at several works in last year's Sensation Exhibition but he particularly objected to a painting by the British artist, Chris Ofili, which depicted a Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung.
When the museum refused to withdraw the work last September, the mayor said he was withholding its funding and launching efforts to evict it from its building. That provoked accusations that he was denying Brooklyn Museum its constitutional right of free speech and damaging New York's reputation as a cultural centre.
After a six-month legal battle, he has been forced to back down, to repay the funding he withheld and to agree never to withhold money from the museum again.
Museum officials have welcomed the settlement as a victory for free speech and artistic expression.
A spokesman for the mayor said he was also happy because he felt it was time to end the hostilities.
But it couldn't have come at a worse time for him - he's been under heavy criticism for his handling of the police shooting of an unarmed black man. And for the first time in months his rival in the New York Senate race, Hillary Clinton, has pulled ahead of him in the polls.
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