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Met Museum's Paintings of 'Whitewashed' Jesus Are Racist, Lawsuit Says

By Shaye Weaver | December 11, 2015 4:50pm | Updated on December 14, 2015 8:51am
 Paintings like this one,
Paintings like this one, "The Resurrection"by Pietro Perugino in 1502, are offensive, according to the lawsuit.
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Wikimedia Commons/Perugino

UPPER EAST SIDE — A Turtle Bay man is suing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, calling its paintings portraying Jesus racist, anti-Semitic and offensive, and demanding they be taken off the walls.

Justin Renel Joseph, a 33-year-old author, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Nov. 30 against the museum and New York City, stating that certain paintings at the Met present Jesus as a blonde-haired, fair-skinned, Aryan man, which he described as a "whitewashing" of Jesus's appearance and a "cultural theft of an important historical and public figure." 

Joseph, who describes himself as a Christian, bi-racial male of Hebrew and African descent, went to the Met on Nov. 26 and said he was offended by how Jesus was painted by Renaissance-era artists, including Pietro Perugino, Jacopo Tintoretto, and Francesco Granacci, according to the lawsuit.

Sebastiano Ricci's "The Holy Family with Angels" in particular caused Joseph to pause, he told DNAinfo New York on Friday.

"It's not just art, it's a messaging," he said. "The average person walking by doesn't realize that, but the Met is an educational place. We all know that Jesus as a historical figure was from the Middle East, but in society he is only depicted as white, so everyone thinks that is right."

In the lawsuit, Joseph stated that Jesus "would not be genetically disposed to possess such features ... historical accounts of Jesus Christ describe him with hair like wool and skin of bronze color."

Already having seen injustice against people of his race and experiencing it himself, Joseph stated in the suit that the displays caused him "lowered self-esteem, discomfort, personal and emotional distress and to feel rejected and unaccepted by society."

By keeping the "whitewashed" Jesus paintings as part of its permanent collection, the Met "institutionalizes white supremacy propaganda," Joseph said.

The lawsuit demands that the Met remove the paintings and that it, and the city, which provides some funding to the museum, pay for his legal costs and any other relief the court finds necessary.

"I think this will start a domino effect," Joseph added. "Any kind of museum with government subsidies shouldn’t engage in this type of speech. I'm hoping brave artists can depict Jesus how he is and donate their work to these museums."

The Met did not return requests for comment on Friday. A spokesman of the city's law department said it would "review the suit."