New York City’s de Blasio family reportedly trashed paintings of founding fathers in the mayor’s mansion and replaced them with more diverse historical figures.
According to the New York Post, the Big Apple’s mayoral family junked a handful of paintings depicting George Washington and other unspecified founding fathers from the historical Yellow Parlor in the Gracie Mansion for more diverse artifacts that will reportedly better represent the history of America.
The Yellow Parlor, where guests of New York’s mayor have been entertained for centuries, will now showcase a tomahawk given by colonialists to the chief warrior of the Iroquois in 1797, pictures of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and former slave Pierre Toussaint and a proof of sale for a slave named Maria.
The changes were made by the mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray, who felt the historical house desperately lacked diversity. The Wall Street Journal reported McCray wants the house to better represent the 1700s and 1800s.
The Gracie Mansion, built in 1799, has been closed for 15 months allowing the de Blasios to move from their Park Slope home into the mansion, according to The Wall Street Journal. It will reopen at the end of October, when the public can tour the property.
A total of 49 pieces of art were added. Besides the removal of the Washington paintings, it was not released how many other historic, ostensibly non-diverse artifacts were removed.
Source: The Daily Caller
